But all has passed

I never could read the story of Beauty and th Beast, as a child, or to my children… I would just feel so sorry for the poor Beast, and when Beauty left him it was almost too much to bear, and then when her love for him brought her back to him, that was enough to move me to tears… and yes, I know it’s a children’s fairy story!

Here is a lovely sonnet by John Masefield, who was born in 1878, orphaned, brought up by an aunt and sent to sea at an early age.

But all has passed

But all has passed, the tune has died away,
The glamour gone, the glory; is it chance?
Is the unfeeling mud stabbed by a ray
Cast by an unseen splendor’s great advance?
Or does the glory gather crumb by crumb
Unseen, within, as coral islands rise,
Till suddenly the apparitions come
Above the surface, looking at the skies?
Or does sweet Beauty dwell in lovely things,
Scattering the holy hintings of her name
In women, in dear friends, in flowers, in springs,
In the brook’s voice, for us to catch the same?
Or is it we who are Beauty, we who ask,
We by whose gleams the world fulfils its task?

John Masefield