Page:Poems by Isaac Rosenberg (1922).djvu/85

 Half beasts snorting into the light, A phantasmagoria, wild escapade To our hearts' clue; just a daring plan To the honest mason. What swathed meanings peer From his work-a-day council, washed to and from Your understanding till you doubt That a word was said— But a terror wakes and forces your eyes Into his covertly, to search his searching; Startled to life, starved hopes slink out Cowering, incredulous.

I am broken and grey, have seen much in my time, And all this gay grotesque of childish man Long passed; half blind, half deaf, I only grumble I am not blind or deaf enough for peace. I have seen splendid young fools cheat themselves Into a prophet's frenzy; I have seen So many crazed shadows puffed away, And conscious cheats with such an ache for fame