Rain and Roses

<h2><SPAN name="LINES_TO_DEATH" id="LINES_TO_DEATH"></SPAN>Lines to Death</h2> <div class="poetry"> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="ig"><span class="letra">T</span>HE harp like strings of destiny<br/></span> <span class="ih">Stretched taut awhile, then broke,<br/></span> <span class="i0">So life gives o’er the battle<br/></span> <span class="i2">To death’s relentless stroke.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">What’s wealth with all its glitter<br/></span> <span class="i2">When the sands of life are spent?<br/></span> <span class="i0">It cannot unfold the curtain<br/></span> <span class="i2">Of that solitary tent.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Fame is just a tempting bauble<br/></span> <span class="i2">That comes when least we call,<br/></span> <span class="i0">And fate stands thus dividing<br/></span> <span class="i2">Rain and roses ’mongst us all.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">Life is just a few short summers,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Breath of roses and a prayer.<br/></span> <span class="i0">Then a little tent to sleep in<br/></span> <span class="i2">When we grow too tired to care.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">The high, the low, the haughty,<br/></span> <span class="i2">The humble, too, meet here.<br/></span> <span class="i0">And share like common brothers<br/></span> <span class="i2">The sorrow and the tear.<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_77" id="page_77">{77}</SPAN></span><br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">But life must have its raining<br/></span> <span class="i2">For the master wills it so;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And broken harps are mended,<br/></span> <span class="i2">After death has struck the blow.<br/></span> <span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="page_78" id="page_78">{78}</SPAN></span></div> </div></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />