Let Us Be Thieves Tonight

Let us be thieves tonight, just tonight,
While we are young, while we are young;
So short the night is still the stars
Grow cold and one by one are flung
Into the cauldron of the dawn;
So short a while till we are gone!
Let us be thieves tonight, and steal
One moment from eternity,
One moment only from the wealth
Of all the hours yet to be;
One pearl snatched from the swirling stream,
One moment. . . . . ours to dream!
To live a dream. . . tonight to know
In one sweet draught all ecstasy,
All life, all love, all grandeur, joy;
To walk with you, within a land,
Of aching beauty, hand in hand.
Not dare? Not dare? When millions are
Who strive all through life to keep
One last, sweet tryst with lifelong dreams
Before they go to dreamless sleep?
When all our days must after seem
But fragments of a shattered dream?

SHERRY KING.