THE CERTAIN HOUR 

 (Dizain des Poëtes) 

 

 By 

 JAMES BRANCH CABELL 

 

     "Criticism, whatever may be its pretensions, never does more than to define the impression which is made upon it at a certain moment by a work wherein the writer himself noted the impression of the world which he received at a certain hour." 

 

 NEW YORK ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY 1916 

 

   Copyright, 1916, by Robert M. McBride & Co. Copyright, 1915, by McBride, Nast & Co. Copyright, 1914, by the Sewanee Review Quarterly Copyright, 1913, by John Adams Thayer Corporation Copyright, 1912, by Argonaut Publishing Company Copyright, 1911, by Red Book Corporation Copyright, 1909, by Harper and Brothers 

 

 TO ROBERT GAMBLE CABELL II 

 

 In Dedication of The Certain Hour 

   Sad hours and glad hours, and all hours, pass over; One thing unshaken stays:   Life, that hath Death for spouse, hath Chance for lover; Whereby decays 

   Each thing save one thing:—mid this strife diurnal Of hourly change begot, Love that is God-born, bides as God eternal, And changes not;— 

   Nor means a tinseled dream pursuing lovers Find altered by-and-bye, When, with possession, time anon discovers Trapped dreams must die,— 

   For he that visions God, of mankind gathers One manlike trait alone, And reverently imputes to 

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