"Decay" (John Clare)

Amidst the happiest joy a shade of grief 
Will come - to mark in summer's prime a leaf 
Tinged with the Autumn's visible decay 
As pining to forgetfulness away 
Aye blank forgetfulness that coldest lot 
To be - and to have been - and then be not 
E'en beauty's self, love's essence, heaven's prime - 
Mate for eternity in joys sublime, 
Earth's most divinest, is a mortal thing 
And nurses time's sick Autumn from its Spring 
And fades and fades till wonder knows it not 
And admiration hath all praise forgot 
Coldly forsaking an unheeding past 
To fade and fall and die like common things at last 

John Clare