HIPPODROMANIA ? 



In the ears to the earth shock resounding ! 



In the eyes flashing fire and blood ! 

 In the quarters above you revolving! 



In the sods underneath heaving high ! 

 There was little to aid you in solving 



Such questions — the how or the why. 



** And destiny, steadfast in trifles, 



Is steadfast for better or worse 

 In great things, it crushes and stifles. 



And swallows the hopes that we nurse. 

 Men wiser than we are may wonder, 



When the future they cling to so fast, 

 To the roll of that destiny's thunder, 



Goes down with the wrecks of the past." 



The past ! the dead past ! that has swallow'd 

 All the honey of life and the milk, 



Brighter dreams than mere pastimes we've 

 follow'd, 

 Better things than our scarlet or silk ; 



Aye, and worse things — that past is it really 

 Dead to us who again and again 



Feel sharply, hear plainly, see clearly 



Past days with their joy and their pain ? 



147 



