Say, gently, a sad time is come,
A time for neither song nor hum,
For maidens, rosy cheeked and fair,
Once crazed with gold, thighs bare,
To lie with boors and scum.
Say, solemnly, a time of melancholy,
A sadness, a presence most unholy,
For the evil that dwells within man,
Is come out, and a sad time is begun,
For the high and the lowly.
Say, staidly, that all joy is departed,
For the recreant and the true-hearted,
And in the rancid air echoes a sadness,
Broken notes, faintness, hopelessness,
For man is on a path uncharted.
Say, then, gently, solemnly, staidly, it's here,
A time, our time, old and young at the weir,
Truth, genteel, lies and brutes. An annexation,
Say, then, whence comes our salvation?
Or shall we in one cohere?