Law, Like Love

Law, Like Love


Law, say the gardeners, is the sun,Law is the oneAll gardeners obeyTo-morrow, yesterday, to-day.Law is the wisdom of the old,The impotent grandfathers feebly scold;The grandchildren put out a treble tongue,Law is the senses of the young.Law, says the priest with a priestly look,Expounding to an unpriestly people,Law is the words in my priestly book,Law is my pulpit and my steeple.Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,Speaking clearly and most severely,Law is as I've told you before,Law is as you know I suppose,Law is but let me explain it once more,Law is The Law.Yet law-abiding scholars write:Law is neither wrong nor right,Law is only crimesPunished by places and by times,Law is the clothes men wearAnytime, anywhere,Law is Good morning and Good night.Others say, Law is our Fate;Others say, Law is our State;Others say, others sayLaw is no more,Law has gone away.And always the loud angry crowd,Very angry and very loud,Law is We,And always the soft idiot softly Me.If we, dear, know we know no moreThan they about the Law,If I no more than youKnow what we should and should not doExcept that all agreeGladly or miserablyThat the Law isAnd that all know thisIf therefore thinking it absurdTo identify Law with some other word,Unlike so many menI cannot say Law is again,No more than they can we suppressThe universal wish to guessOr slip out of our own positionInto an unconcerned condition.Although I can at least confineYour vanity and mineTo stating timidlyA timid similarity,We shall boast anyvay:Like love I say.Like love we don't know where or why,Like love we can't compel or fly,Like love we often weep,Like love we seldom keep. WH Auden