Hope is not for the wise, fear is for fools; br Change and the world, we think, are racing to a fall, br Open-eyed and helpless, in every newscast that is the news: br The time's events would seem mere chaos but all br Drift the one deadly direction. But this is only br The August thunder of the age, not the November. br Wise men hope nothing, the wise are naturally lonely br And think November as good as April, the wise remember br That Caesar and even final Augustulus had heirs, br And men lived on; rich unplanned life on earth br After the foreign wars and the civil wars, the border wars br And the barbarians: music and religion, honor and mirth br Renewed life's lost enchantments. But if life even br Had perished utterly, Oh perfect loveliness of earth and heaven.