Go Forth

Image from Shorpy

ENVOY

Francis Thompson (1859 – 1907)

Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play;
Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow;
And some are sung, and that was yesterday.
And some unsung, and that may be tomorrow.

Go forth; and if it be o’er stony way,
Old joy can lend what newer grief must borrow;
And it was sweet, and that was yesterday,
And sweet is sweet, tho purchased with sorrow.

Go, songs, and come not back from your far way;
And if men ask you why ye smile and sorrow,
Tell them ye grieve, for your hearts know Today.
Tell them ye smile, for your eyes know Tomorrow.

Mason City Globe Gazette (Mason City, Iowa) Oct 4, 1929

Tags: 1929, England, Francis Thompson, Opium, Poetry, Vagabond, Vagrant