WHEREIN HE EXHORTS HIS SOUL TO LEAVE THE HOLLOW CLAIMS OF EARTH FOR THE CERTAIN REWARDS OF HEAVEN

What can you do? What think? Ah, why bend back
Upon the time that passes and is past?
The flame you fed once, the old holocaust,
Why feed again with agonies as black?
Those tones that shook the stars in sweet attack,
Those heaven-searching glances which outlast
All similes are fled; and how aghast
Must grow the late and lonely bivouac!
Cancel the resurrection of a ghost!
Forswear pursuit of dreams with desperate eyes!
Rather pursue the loyal than the lost,
Since nothing matches the celestial prize.
That loveliness is death, alive or dead,
Whose torturing aspect tears peace shred by shred.