Sonnet XXV

By George Santayana 1863–1952 George Santayana

As in the midst of battle there is room

For thoughts of love, and in foul sin for mirth;

As gossips whisper of a trinket’s worth

Spied by the death-bed’s flickering candle-gloom;

As in the crevices of Caesar’s tomb

The sweet herbs flourish on a little earth:

So in this great disaster of our birth

We can be happy, and forget our doom.

For morning, with a ray of tenderest joy

Gilding the iron heaven, hides the truth,

And evening gently woos us to employ

Our grief in idle catches. Such is youth;

Till from that summer’s trance we wake, to find

Despair before us, vanity behind.

Source: American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century (The Library of America, 1993)

Biography

George Santayana was a Spanish-born American philosopher who is regarded as one of the most important thinkers of the first half of the twentieth century, and one of the most prominent champions of critical realism. He was also a critic, dramatist, educator, essayist, novelist, and poet. His first published work was a book of poetry titled Sonnets and Other Verses. An opponent of the contemporary philosophical methods, which . . .

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