THE world will have it so.
Whatever you may take,
You have to let it go.
Watch the branches make
Their flowers and let them blow
Or apple trees that break
While their harvests grow.
They have to let them go.
The world will have it so.
The clouds that bloom and shake
Into many-petaled snow,
The heart that beats awake
And feels its beating slow —
Each for his private sake
Took and treasured so
Beauty the heart should know
Must always be let go.