The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
The showman gargles fire and sword with ease
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
And yet 'twas he the beggar Fate just flings
When flame a form to wrath ancestral gave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
The peasants's skirts on rainy days she'd tress
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
The Taj Mahal has trinkets spice and gum
The best of all things to an end must come