Why?

“EARTH, thou art perfect and fair ;
“ Life, thou art earnest and sweet ;
Soul, thou art rightfully heir ;
Is not thy rapture complete ?
Why, from the manifold joys
That hie to the morning of day,
From sorrows that strengthen and save,
Turn’st thou, expectant, away ?

I stand in the fresh morning lands ;
Dew-stars in the grass at my feet ;
Buds and white bloom in my hands ;
About me sweet song-pulses beat.
From the far depths of the sky
A glory is rising for me,
A royal and roseate dawn
Tinting the hills and the sea.

Youth with its gladness is here,
Time with its treasures untold,
Toil with its promise and cheer,
Love that will never grow cold.
Yet out of this sweetness and warmth,
I fade, and I follow afar
A voice that is vague as a dream,
A light that is faint as a star.

Mystery waveth her wand
Over the knowledge I crave,
And the shadow that stayeth her hand
Hovereth over a grave.