Mutability

They say there’s a high windless world and strange,
    Out of the wash of days and temporal tide,
    Where Faith and Good, Wisdom and Truth abide,
Æterna corpora, subject to no change.
There the sure suns of those pale shadows move;
    There stand the immortal ensigns of our war;
    Our melting flesh fixed Beauty there, a star,
And perishing hearts, imperishable Love. . . .

Dear, we know only that we sigh, kiss, smile;
    Each kiss lasts but the kissing; and grief goes over;
    Love has no habitation but the heart.
Poor straws! on the dark flood we catch awhile,
    Cling, and are born into the night apart.
    The laugh dies with the lips, ‘Love’ with the lover.