Having devised for it counsel that ruleth in righteousness aye. + 

Now learn thou of Oedipus’ wisdom:⁠—“If one should shear away + 

With the axe keen-cleaving the branches of a stately oak, and bring + 

To shame its glorious beauty, even in the perishing + 

Of its fruitage, it still giveth token of that which it was of old, + 

Yea, though it should come to the hearth-fire at last in the winter’s cold, + 

Or whether, a great beam resting athwart the columns tall + 

That bear the weight of the rafters of a proud lord’s feasting-hall, + 

It doeth slavish service walled in ’twixt roof and floor, + 

And the place that knew it aforetime shall know it again no more.” + 