Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
The Great MisgivingWilliam Watson (18581935)
‘N
Asking no heaven, we fear no fabled hell:
Life is a feast, and we have banqueted—
Shall not the worms as well?
And void the places where the minstrels stood,
Differs in nought from what hath been before,
And is nor ill nor good.’
The beckoning finger bidding me forgo
The fellowship, the converse, and the wine,
The songs, the festal glow!
And while the purple joy is pass’d about,
Whether ’tis ampler day divinelier lit
Or homeless night without;
New prospects, or fall sheer—a blinded thing!
There is, O grave, thy hourly victory,
And there, O death, thy sting.