[Lyric] Seven Sonnets I (Arthur Hugh Clough)

That children in their loveliness should die
Before the dawning beauty, which we know
Cannot remain, has yet begun to go;
That when a certain period has passed by,
People of genius and of faculty,
Leaving behind them some result to show,
Having performed some function, should forego
A task which younger hands can better ply,
Appears entirely natural. But that one
Whose perfectness did not at all consist
In things towards forming which time could have done
Anything,--whose sole office was to exist
Should suddenly dissolve and cease to be
Calls up the hardest questions. . . .