FEB 5- 1947 HILDEBRANDT 823 K62 1916 V. 21 DEDICATION Before a midnight breaks in storm, Ye know what wavering gusts inform The greater tempest's path; Till the loosed wind Drive all from mind, Except Distress, which, so will prophets cry, Ere rivers league against the land In piratry of flood, Ye know what waters slip and stand Where seldom water stood. Yet who will note, Till fields afloat, And washen carcass and the returning well, Ye know who use the Crystal Ball (To peer by stealth on Doom), The Shade that, shaping first of all, Prepares an empty room. Then doth It pass Like breath from glass, But, on the extorted vision bowed intent, Before the years reborn behold Themselves with stranger eye, And the sport-making Gods of old, Many shall hear The all-pregnant sphere Bow to the birth and sweat, but-speech deniedSit dumb or-dealt in part-fall weak and wide. Yet instant to fore-shadowed need The eternal balance swings; So soon as Fate hath wings. These shall possess Our littleness, And in the imperial task (as worthy) lay Up our lives' all to piece one giant day. |