Song + 

III + 

Truth’s Paradoxes + 

Why does a strange discordance break + 

The ordered scheme’s fair harmony? + 

Hath God decreed ’twixt truth and truth + 

There may such lasting warfare be, + 

That truths, each severally plain, + 

We strive to reconcile in vain? + 

Or is the discord not in truth, + 

Since truth is self consistent ever? + 

But, close in fleshly wrappings held, + 

The blinded mind of man can never + 

Discern⁠—so faint her taper shines⁠— + 

The subtle chain that all combines? + 

Ah! then why burns man’s restless mind + 

Truth’s hidden portals to unclose? + 

Knows he already what he seeks? + 

Why toil to seek it, if he knows? + 

Yet, haply if he knoweth not, + 

Why blindly seek he knows not what? + 

Who for a good he knows not sighs? + 

Who can an unknown end pursue? + 

How find? How e’en when haply found + 

Hail that strange form he never knew? + 

Or is it that man’s inmost soul + 

Once knew each part and knew the whole? + 

Now, though by fleshly vapours dimmed, + 

Not all forgot her visions past; + 

For while the several parts are lost, + 

To the one whole she cleaveth fast; + 

Whence he who yearns the truth to find + 

Is neither sound of sight nor blind. + 

For neither does he know in full, + 

Nor is he reft of knowledge quite; + 

But, holding still to what is left, + 

He gropes in the uncertain light, + 

And by the part that still survives + 

To win back all he bravely strives. + 