The New Life

PERHAPS they laughed at Dante in his youth,	
Told him that truth	
Had unappealably been said	
In the great masterpieces of the dead: —
Perhaps he listened and but bowed his head
In acquiescent honour, while his heart	
Held natal tidings,— that a new life is the part	
Of every man that’s born,	
A new life never lived before,	
And a new expectant art;
It is the variations of the morn	
That are forever, more and more,	
The single dawning of the single truth.	
So answers Dante to the heart of youth!