Leisure
14 lines✦
eisure, thou goddess of a bygone age,When hours were long and days sufficed to holdWide-eyed delights and pleasures uncontrolledBy shortening moments, when no gaunt presageOf undone duties, modern heritage,Haunted our happy minds; must thou withholdThy presence from this over-busy world,And bearing silence with thee disengageOur twined fortunes? Deeps of unhewn woodsAlone can cherish thee, alone possessThy quiet, teeming vigor. This our crime:Not to have worshipped, marred by alien moodsThat sole condition of all loveliness,The dreaming lapse of slow, unmeasured time.
✦