Have I lost spring? count up (see) the winter's fresh gains!

Is the shrub spoilt? the pine's hair impends!"

[Pg 385]

XX

What, you'd say—"Mark how God works! Years crowd, time wears thin,

Earth keeps good yet, the sun goes on, stars hold their own,

And you'll change, climb past sight of the world, shift your skin,

Never heeding how life moans—'more flesh now, less bone!'

For that cheek's worn waste outline (death's grin)

XXI

"Pleads with time still—'what good if I lose this? but see—'"

(There's the crab gone!) "'I said, "Though earth sinks,"'" (you perceive?

Ah, true, back there!) your soul now—"'"yet some vein might be

(Could one find it alive in the heart's core's pulse, cleave

Through the life-springs where "you" melts in "me")—

XXII

"'"Some true vein of the absolute soul, which survives

All that flesh runs to waste through"—and lo, this fails!

Here's death close on us! One life? a million of lives!

Why choose one sail to watch of these infinite sails?

 Prev. P 14/49 next