Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Edwin ArlingtonRobinson

1610 Ballade of Dead Friends

AS we the withered ferns

By the roadway lying,

Time, the jester, spurns

All our prayers and prying—

All our tears and sighing,

Sorrow, change, and woe—

All our where-and-whying

For friends that come and go.

Life awakes and burns.

Age and death defying,

Till at last it learns

All but Love is dying;

Love’s the trade we’re plying,

God has willed it so;

Shrouds are what we’re buying

For friends that come and go.

Man forever yearns

For the thing that ’s flying.

Everywhere he turns,

Men to dust are drying,—

Dust that wanders, eyeing

(With eyes that hardly glow)

New faces, dimly spying

For friends that come and go.

ENVOY

And thus we all are nighing

The truth we fear to know:

Death will end our crying

For friends that come and go.