I + 

And since I understood not what so strong + 

Driveth all these at such exstatic pace, + 

I too went down and joined in the throng; + 

And many sitting in a lowly place + 

I saw, where sense and vision darkness clogs, + 

With one flat-breasted wife with munched face + 

And bestial litter as of rats or hogs; + 

These are all they that eat and multiply + 

In the same manner with low apes and dogs; + 

Like these they live and like these they shall die. + 

—Pass thou from these, said then to me that voice, + 

And heed not thou the stinking of that sty. + 

Then saw I them that did with wine rejoice, + 

Crowning their heads with roses of the earth; + 

I too sat down and joined in that noise, + 

But ask’d me soon⁠—Why do all these have mirth? + 

From these I past, weary of myrrh and wine. + 

Others apart whose spirits had more dearth + 

Sat solitary as who would fain divine, + 

Of seeing and of hearing ill content; + 

With these I sat, half drunken with the vine, + 

And sick of visions that aye came and went; + 

But all the knowledge that their striving found + 

Was but one vision more than wine had sent; + 

All these also shall moulder in the ground. + 

From these I past as from dead flesh and bones. + 

Then came I where the kings of earth sat crown’d + 

Neath purple canopies on golden thrones; + 

These offer’d me part in that changeless state, + 

Until my soul wearied of brass and brônze. + 

Others whose sweating nothing could abate + 

Kingdoms and cities build and overthrow, + 

Till my soul wonder’d at the striving great + 

Of all the puppets in that puppet-show: + 

—Doth the string move them with such urgency, + 

That all their limbs such strange grimaces show? + 

—These are all they that do, one made reply; + 

In all their actions never could I find + 

What they were doing these things for nor why. + 

From these I past as from the deaf and blind, + 

And ever as I went the solemn brawl + 

Of all these mad and idiot howl’d behind. + 

I came to those that ceased not to call. + 

The world unto them, shouting o’er and o’er; + 

My heart knew not why these so loudly bawl; + 

And some stood round with faces that implore, + 

Asking for peace; and ever those that gave + 

Did but like these delude themselves the more; + 

But rottenness shall stop all these that rave. + 

Last, some there were that did with vanity + 

Toil ever with unwearied hands to save + 

And to eternize all things great and high; + 

With these I stay’d, till my heart questioned: + 

—What are the things thou doëst here and why? + 

Whereat all these became as persons dead. + 

Then I arose from among these the last, + 

And follow’d then where’er my footsteps led; + 

And among them that reigned then I past, + 

And among them that ever fain would know, + 

And among them whose lot with wine was cast; + 

I past the prophets and the puppet-show, + 

And among them that joy’d in marble and in song, + 

And all that Seven tir’d of long ago. + 

And is this all the meaning of that throng, + 

This all, O heart, that wast of seeing fain, + 

But like a circle that still seemeth long + 

Because it goeth round and round again? + 

Not in all these doth any reason hide + 

No more than in the words of the insane. + 

There is no ground for sorrow; nor in pride + 

For pride; nor in them that in gladness sate; + 

Wherefore with none of these shall I abide. + 

The sought is vanity; the seeking great + 

Vanity; the not-seeking vanity; + 

For none of these change I my solemn state. + 