Soothsay + 

Eight days went by, eight days + 

Comforted by no nights, until finally: + 

“Would you behold yourself old, beloved?” + 

I was pierced, yet I consented gladly + 

For I knew it could not be otherwise. + 

And she⁠—“Behold yourself old! + 

Sustained in strength, wielding might in gript surges! + 

Not bodying the sun in weak leaps + 

But holding way over rockish men + 

With fern free fingers on their little crags, + 

Their hollows, the new Atlas, to bear them + 

For pride and for mockery! Behold + 

Yourself old! winding with slow might⁠— + 

A vine among oaks⁠—to the thin tops: + 

Leaving the leafless leaved, + 

Bearing purple clusters! Behold + 

Yourself old! birds are behind you. + 

You are the wind coming that stills birds, + 

Shakes the leaves in booming polyphony⁠— + 

Slow, winning high way amid the knocking + 

Of boughs, evenly crescendo, + 

The din and bellow of the male wind! + 

Leap then from forest into foam! + 

Lash about from low into high flames + 

Tipping sound, the female chorus⁠— + 

Linking all lions, all twitterings + 

To make them nothing! Behold yourself old!” + 

As I made to answer she continued, + 

A little wistfully yet in a voice clear cut: + 

“Good is my overlip and evil + 

My underlip to you henceforth: + 

For I have taken your soul between my two hands + 

And this shall be as it is spoken.” + 