<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Shine, Perishing Republic</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; font-family: Times; min-height: 23px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">While this America settles in the mould of its vulgarity, heavily thickening to empire,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">And protest, only a bubble in the molten mass, pops and sighs out, and the mass </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>hardens,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I sadly smiling remember that the flower fades to make fruit, the fruit rots to make </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>earth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Out of the mother; and through the spring exultances, ripeness and decadence; and </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>home to the mother.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">You making haste haste on decay: not blameworthy; life is good, be it stubbornly </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>long or suddenly</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">A mortal splendor: meteors are not needed less than mountains: shine, perishing </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>republic.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">But for my children, I would have them keep their distance from the thickening </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>center; corruption</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Never has been compulsory, when the cities lie at the monster’s feet there are left </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>the mountains.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">And boys, be in nothing so moderate as in love of man, a clever servant, </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>insufferable master.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">There is the trap that catches noblest spirits, that caught—they say—God, when he </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>walked on earth.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Robinson Jeffers</div></body></html>