What Ails the World?

"What ails the world?" the poet cried;         "And why does death walk everywhere?         And why do tears fall anywhere?         And skies have clouds, and souls have care?"     Thus the poet sang, and sighed.     For he would fain have all things glad,         All lives happy, all hearts bright;         Not a day would end in night,         Not a wrong would vex a right --     And so he sang -- and he was sad.     Thro' his very grandest rhymes         Moved a mournful monotone --         Like a shadow eastward thrown         From a sunset -- like a moan     Tangled in a joy-bell's chimes.     "What ails the world?" he sang and asked --         And asked and sang -- but all in vain;         No answer came to any strain,         And no reply to his refrain --     The mystery moved 'round him masked.     "What ails the world?" An echo came --         "Ails the world?" The minstrel bands,         With famous or forgotten hands,         Lift up their lyres in all the lands,     And chant alike, and ask the same     From him whose soul first soared in song,         A thousand, thousand years away,         To him who sang but yesterday,         In dying or in deathless lay --     "What ails the world?" comes from the throng.     They fain would sing the world to rest;         And so they chant in countless keys,         As many as the waves of seas,         And as the breathings of the breeze,     Yet even when they sing their best --     When o'er the list'ning world there floats         Such melody as 'raptures men --         When all look up entranced -- and when         The song of fame floats forth, e'en then     A discord creepeth through the notes --     Their sweetest harps have broken strings,         Their grandest accords have their jars,         Like shadows on the light of stars,         And somehow, something ever mars     The songs the greatest minstrel sings.     And so each song is incomplete,         And not a rhyme can ever round         Into the chords of perfect sound         The tones of thought that e'er surround     The ways walked by the poet's feet.     "What ails the world?" he sings and sighs;         No answer cometh to his cry.         He asks the earth and asks the sky --         The echoes of his song pass by     Unanswered -- and the poet dies.