1. ۱Let us begin and carry up this corpse,
2. ۲ Singing together.
3. ۳Leave we the common crofts, the vulgar thorpes,
4. ۴ Each in its tether
5. ۵Sleeping safe on the bosom of the plain,
6. ۶ Cared-for till ...-crow:
7. ۷Look out if yonder be not day again
8. ۸ Rimming the rock-row!
9. ۹That's the appropriate country; there, man's thought,
10. ۱۰ Rarer, intenser,
11. ۱۱Self-gathered for an outbreak, as it ought,
12. ۱۲ Chafes in the censer.
13. ۱۳
14. ۱۴Leave we the unlettered plain its herd and crop;
15. ۱۵ Seek we sepulture
16. ۱۶On a tall mountain, citied to the top,
17. ۱۷ Crowded with culture!
18. ۱۸All the peaks soar, but one the rest excels;
19. ۱۹ Clouds overcome it;
20. ۲۰No! yonder sparkle is the citadel's
21. ۲۱ Circling its summit.
22. ۲۲Thither our path lies; wind we up the heights:
23. ۲۳ Wait ye the warning?
24. ۲۴Our low life was the level's and the night's:
25. ۲۵ He's for the morning.
26. ۲۶Step to a tune, square chests, ... each head,
27. ۲۷ 'Ware the beholders!
28. ۲۸This is our master, famous calm and dead,
29. ۲۹ Borne on our shoulders.
30. ۳۰
31. ۳۱Sleep, crop and herd! sleep, darkling thorpe and croft,
32. ۳۲ Safe from the weather!
33. ۳۳He, whom we convoy to his grave aloft,
34. ۳۴ Singing together,
35. ۳۵He was a man born with thy face and throat,
36. ۳۶ Lyric Apollo!
37. ۳۷Long he lived nameless: how should spring take note
38. ۳۸ Winter would follow?
39. ۳۹Till lo, the little touch, and youth was gone!
40. ۴۰ Cramped and diminished,
41. ۴۱Moaned he, "New measures, other feet anon!
42. ۴۲ My dance is finished?"
43. ۴۳No, that's the world's way; (keep the mountain-side,
44. ۴۴ Make for the city!)
45. ۴۵He knew the signal, and stepped on with pride
46. ۴۶ Over men's pity;
47. ۴۷Left play for work, and grappled with the world
48. ۴۸ Bent on escaping:
49. ۴۹"What's in the scroll," quoth he, "thou keepest furled?
50. ۵۰ Show me their shaping,
51. ۵۱Theirs who most studied man, the bard and sage,--
52. ۵۲ Give!"--So, he gowned him,
53. ۵۳Straight got by heart that book to its last page:
54. ۵۴ Learned, we found him.
55. ۵۵Yea, but we found him bald too, eyes like lead,
56. ۵۶ Accents uncertain:
57. ۵۷"Time to taste life," another would have said,
58. ۵۸ "Up with the curtain!"
59. ۵۹This man said rather, "Actual life comes next?
60. ۶۰ Patience a moment!
61. ۶۱Grant I have mastered learning's crabbed text,
62. ۶۲ Still there's the comment.
63. ۶۳
64. ۶۴Let me know all! Prate not of most or least,
65. ۶۵ Painful or easy!
66. ۶۶Even to the crumbs I'd fain eat up the feast,
67. ۶۷ Ay, nor feel queasy."
68. ۶۸Oh, such a life as he resolved to live,
69. ۶۹ When he had learned it,
70. ۷۰When he had gathered all books had to give!
71. ۷۱ Sooner, he spurned it.
72. ۷۲Image the whole, then execute the parts--
73. ۷۳ Fancy the fabric
74. ۷۴Quite, ere you build, ere steel strikes fire from quartz,
75. ۷۵ Ere mortar dab brick.
76. ۷۶
77. ۷۷(Here's the town-gate reached; there's the market-place
78. ۷۸ Gaping before us.)
79. ۷۹Yea, this in him was the peculiar grace
80. ۸۰ (Hearten our chorus!)
81. ۸۱That before living he'd learn how to live--
82. ۸۲ No end to learning:
83. ۸۳Earn the means first--God surely will contrive
84. ۸۴ Use for our earning.
85. ۸۵Others mistrust and say, "But time escapes!
86. ۸۶ Live now or never!"
87. ۸۷He said, "What's time? Leave Now for dogs and apes!
88. ۸۸ Man has Forever."
89. ۸۹
90. ۹۰Back to his book then: deeper drooped his head:
91. ۹۱Calculus_ racked him:
92. ۹۲Leaden before, his eyes grew dross of lead:
93. ۹۳Tussis_ attacked him.
94. ۹۴"Now, master, take a little rest!"--not he!
95. ۹۵ (Caution redoubled!
96. ۹۶Step two abreast, the way winds narrowly!)
97. ۹۷ Not a whit troubled,
98. ۹۸Back to his studies, fresher than at first,
99. ۹۹ Fierce as a dragon
100. ۱۰۰He (soul-hydroptic with a sacred thirst)
101. ۱۰۱ Sucked at the flagon.
102. ۱۰۲Oh, if we draw a circle premature,
103. ۱۰۳ Heedless of far gain,
104. ۱۰۴Greedy for quick returns of profit, sure
105. ۱۰۵ Bad is our bargain!
106. ۱۰۶Was it not great? did not he throw on God
107. ۱۰۷ (He loves the burthen)--
108. ۱۰۸God's task to make the heavenly period
109. ۱۰۹ Perfect the earthen?
110. ۱۱۰Did not he magnify the mind, show clear
111. ۱۱۱ Just what it all meant?
112. ۱۱۲He would not discount life, as fools do here,
113. ۱۱۳ Paid by instalment.
114. ۱۱۴He ventured neck or nothing--heaven's success
115. ۱۱۵ Found, or earth's failure:
116. ۱۱۶"Wilt thou trust death or not?" He answered "Yes!
117. ۱۱۷ Hence with life's pale lure!"
118. ۱۱۸That low man seeks a little thing to do,
119. ۱۱۹ Sees it and does it:
120. ۱۲۰This high man, with a great thing to pursue,
121. ۱۲۱ Dies ere he knows it.
122. ۱۲۲That low man goes on adding one to one,
123. ۱۲۳ His hundred's soon hit:
124. ۱۲۴This high man, aiming at a million,
125. ۱۲۵ Misses an unit.
126. ۱۲۶That, has the world here--should he need the next,
127. ۱۲۷ Let the world mind him!
128. ۱۲۸This, throws himself on God, and unperplexed
129. ۱۲۹ Seeking shall find Him.
130. ۱۳۰So, with the throttling hands of death at strife,
131. ۱۳۱ Ground he at grammar;
132. ۱۳۲Still, thro' the rattle, parts of speech were rife:
133. ۱۳۳ While he could stammer
134. ۱۳۴He settledHoti's_ business--let it be!--
135. ۱۳۵ Properly basedOun_--
136. ۱۳۶Gave as the doctrine of the encliticDe_
137. ۱۳۷ Dead from the waist down.
138. ۱۳۸Well, here's the platform, here's the proper place:
139. ۱۳۹ Hail to your purlieus,
140. ۱۴۰All ye highfliers of the feathered race,
141. ۱۴۱ Swallows and curlews:
142. ۱۴۲Here's the top-peak; the multitude below
143. ۱۴۳ Live, for they can, there:
144. ۱۴۴This man decided not to Live, but Know--
145. ۱۴۵ Bury this man there?
146. ۱۴۶Here--here's his place, where meteors shoot, clouds form,
147. ۱۴۷ Lightnings are loosened,
148. ۱۴۸Stars come and go! Let joy break with the storm,
149. ۱۴۹ Peace let the dew send!
150. ۱۵۰Lofty designs must close in like effects:
151. ۱۵۱ Loftily lying,
152. ۱۵۲Leave him--still loftier than the world suspects,
153. ۱۵۳ Living and dying.