ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS 293

To a Soul Going Out Info the Dark

MY pretty soul, my fleeting soul,
Who guest and comrade wert to nies
To what dim undiscovered goal,

Pale little spectre, now wilt flee.
On timid wings of frigid fear*
Forgetting all thy wonted cheer ?

Hadrian, Roman Emperor of Britain

A Little While the Rose

A LITTLE while the rose,
And after that the thorn ;
An hour of dewy morn.
And then the glamour goes.
Ahs love in beauty born,
A little while the rose !

Translated by Henry Van DyJze

His Life Summed Up

HE slept beneath the moon
He basked beneath the sun ;
He lived a life of going to do
And died with nothing done.

Old epitaph written % James Albert/

Beauty

IF Beauty grows old, share it before it be gone ; and if it abides, why
fear to give it away ? From the Greek Anthology

The Secret

WHEN a German knows he is going to die his emotions all break
forth and he weeps pitifully. A Frenchman sobs and calls for
his mother. But Tommy AtMns is silent as if he had a secret with
the Almighty. Walter Hin^s Page, American Ambassador

i

His Watch
AM to be shot in an hour's time. Dearest, your hubby will die
with your name on his lips, your face before his eyes.
I cannot tell you, sweetheart, how much it means to me to leave
you alone, you and my sweet little Annie. I leave my medals to
my father, and my watch to the officer who is executing me, because I
believe him to be a gentleman. An English officer captured by Irish
rebels in 1921, writing to his wife