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?
Time's a tennis-play? thank you, no, fives!


XXIII

"'Stop life's ball then!' Such folly! melt earth down for that,
Till the pure ore eludes you and leaves you raw scoriæ?
Pish, the vein's wrong!" But you, friends--come, what were you at
When God spat you out suddenly? what was the story He
Cut short thus, the growth He laid flat?


XXIV

Wait! the crab's twice alive, mark! Oh, worthy, your soul,
Of strange ends, great results, novel labours! Take note,
I reject this for one! (ay, now, straight to the hole!
Safe in sand there--your skirts smooth out all as they float!)
I, shirk drinking through flaws in the bowl?