Temper Life’s Extremes

‘T is wise, in summer-warmth, to look before,
     To the keen-nipping winter; it is good,
In lifeful hours, to lay aside some store
     Of thought, to leaven the spirit’s duller mood;
T mould the sodded dyke, in sunny hour,
     Against the coming of the wasteful flood;
Still tempering Life’s extremes, that Wo no more
     May start abrupt in Joy’s sweet neighborhood.
If Day burst sudden from the bars of Night,
     Or with one plunge leaped down the sheer abyss,
Painful alike were darkness and the light,
     Bearing fixed war through shifting victories;
But sweet their bond, where peaceful twilight lingers,
Weaving the rosy with the sable fingers.