The Mourners

When they had made the cradle

Of ivory and of gold,

Their hearts were heavy still

With the sorrow of old.

And ever as they rocked, the tears

Ran down, sad tears:

Who is it lieth dead therein,

Dead all these weary years?

And still they rock that cradle there

Of ivory and of gold:

For in their minds the shadow is

The Shadow of Old.

They weep, and know not what they weep;

They wait a vain re-birth:

Vanity of vanities, alas,

For there is but one birth

On the wide green earth.