Quatrains and Aphorisms + 

I + 

The child who chases lizards in the grass, + 

The sage who deep in central nature delves, + 

The preacher watching for the ill hour to pass⁠— + 

All these are souls who fly from their dread selves. + 

II + 

Two spirit-things a man hath for his friends⁠— + 

Sorrow, that gives for guerdon liberty, + 

And joy, the touching of whose finger lends + 

To lightest of all light things sanctity. + 

III + 

Long thou for nothing, neither sad nor gay; + 

Long thou for nothing, neither night nor day; + 

Not even “I long to see thy longing over,” + 

To the ever-longing and mournful spirit say. + 

IV + 

The ghosts went by me with their lips apart + 

From death’s late languor as these lines I read + 

On Brahma’s gateway, “They within have fed + 

The soul upon the ashes of the heart.” + 

V + 

This heard I where, amid the apple trees, + 

Wild indolence and music have no date, + 

“I laughed upon the lips of Sophocles, + 

I go as soft as folly; I am Fate.” + 

VI + 

“Around, the twitter of the lips of dust + 

A tossing laugh between their red abides; + 

With patient beauty yonder Attic bust + 

In the deep alcove’s dimness smiles and hides.” + 

VII + 

The heart of noon folds silence and folds sleep, + 

For noon and midnight from each other borrow, + 

And Joy, in growing deeper and more deep, + 

Walks in the vesture of her sister Sorrow. + 