XII. How dare the robins sing

HOW dare the robins sing,
        When men and women hear
Who since they went to their account
        Have settled with the year! --
Paid all that life had earned
        In one consummate bill,
And now, what life or death can do
        Is immaterial.
Insulting is the sun
        To him whose mortal light,
Beguiled of immortality,
        Bequeaths him to the night.
In deference to him
        Extinct be every hum,
Whose garden wrestles with the dew,
        At daybreak overcome!