Universal Key

All beauty grows and ripens by divine effect When hearts are opened with a universal key Though, when man hurries nature to perfect, He must pay fast and dearly her most humbling fee. If summer’s coin is held in winter’s keep And morning’s light is sold to evening’s gray, The blade of folly leads blue eyes to weep While roses grow sharp thorns to lure their prey. The vain gratuities of which you are so fond Do nothing but to lengthen your distress And to dissolve our weak and fragile bond Whose long decay we struggle to confess. The fox his golden coat in winter might bemoan, Though he’s still glad, unseen, to freely roam. Find my poems and published poetry volumes at www.eton-langford.com