The Whole Family: A Novel by Twelve Authors by James Branch Cabell - HTML preview

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 THE

 CERTAIN HOUR

 (Dizain des Poetes)

 

 By

 JAMES BRANCH CABELL

"Criticism, whatever may be its   pretensions, never does more than to define the impression which is made upon it at a certain moment by a work wherein the writer himself noted the impression of the world which he received at a certain hour."

 NEW YORK

 ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY

1916

Copyright, 1916. by Robert M. McBride &

Copyright, 1915, by McBride, Nast & Co.

Copyright, 1914, by the Sewanee Review Quarterly

Copyright, 1913, by John Adams Thayer Corporation

Copyright, 1912, by Argonaut Publishing Company

Copyright, 1911, by Red Book Corporation

Copyright, 1909, by Harper and Brothers

 TO

 ROBERT GAMBLE CABELL II

In Dedication of The Certain Hour

 

    Sad hours and glad hours, and all hours, pass over;

One thing unshaken stays:

Life, that hath Death for spouse, hath Chance for

lover;

Whereby decays

Each thing save one thing:--mid this strife diurnal

Of hourly change begot,

Love that is God-born, bides as God eternal,

And changes not;--

 

    Nor means a tinseled dream pursuing lovers

Find altered by-and-bye,

When, with possession, time anon discovers

Trapped dreams must die,--

 

    For he that visions God, of mankind gathers

One manlike trait alone,

And reverently imputes to Him a father's

Love for his son.