Let us not then meddle with eternity,
but let me promise you a half-feigned love
for one short night and for a shorter day;
since in that time the full complexity
of all our tangled thoughts will move
to one grave end, why should we pray
that it might last forever?
Some seconds pass , and we have spent
a lifetime in a shaken moment's fever;
this was a love that neither could prevent
though we have only acted it in mime,
but it might save us from the frantic fear of time.

Hills Under Rain

Over the hills the rain monotonously spreads,
no wind to drive it; vague and vertical lines
that wash the colour from the landscape.
Only the closer trees retain their green;
on the hills’ rim the gums are greyly drab
fading to a line of drooping wraiths
as the hill fades to an achromatic merging with the sky.
Flat and grey , my thoughts narrow with the landscape.
What’s here and now I can see, a little blurred perhaps
but under the lowered cloud
what was is washed away
together with what will be .