Da Vinci would not have turned from the poor coarse hand of the little girl
who has been standing by in wondering patience. He, great artist
as he was, owed all he achieved to his firm grasp upon, and struggle with,
and full faith in, the real. She imagines him saying: --

"Shall earth and the cramped moment-space
Yield the heavenly crowning grace?
Now the parts and then the whole! *
Who art thou with stinted soul
And stunted body, thus to cry
`I love, -- shall that be life's strait dole?
I must live beloved or die!'
This peasant hand that spins the wool
And bakes the bread, why lives it on,
Poor and coarse with beauty gone, --
What use survives the beauty? Fool!"

--
* "On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round."
-- Abt Vogler.
--

She has been brought to the last stage of initiation into the mystery
of Life. But, as is shown in the next and final section of the poem,
the wifely heart has preserved its vitality, has, indeed,
grown in vitality, and cherishes a hope which shows its undying love,
and is not without a touch of pathos.

IX. `On Deck'. -- In Sections V.-VIII. the soliloquies are not
directed to the husband, as they are in I.-IV. In this last,