Rotting it lay beneath the affable skies;
A fecund carrion thrusting to the air
Its powerful benediction. Everywhere
About it sang a cloud of bright, green flies.
Joyfully strengthened birds began to rise;
Great, shining beetles ran, refreshed and fair,
And countless crawling things swarmed gladly there;
Called by a death that feeds and fortifies.

So, laughing, to that lively world he came:
Death, like a lover at some glorious task,
Transformed and shining through this quickening strife.
His dark disguise could not conceal the flame;
For there, behind his ineffectual mask,
Sparkled the fresh and conquering eyes of Life.