Page:Poetry, a magazine of verse, Volume 7 (October 1915-March 1916).djvu/88

POETRY: A Magazine of Verse Of life? As it were, I see You with a match, As one in darkness lights a candle, and one Sees nor his friend's form in the shadowed room Until the candle's lighted—even his form Is darkened by the new-made light, he stands So near it! Well, I add to all I've asked Whether You knew the cell born through the glint Of that same lighted match could never rest— Even as electrons rest not—but would surge Over the crest of visible forms, become, Beneath our feet, life hidden from the eye, However aided—as above our heads, Over the Milky Way, great systems whirl Beyond the telescope!—become bacilli, Amœba, star-fish, swimming things; on land The serpent, and then birds, and beasts of prey, The tiger (You in the tiger), on and on, Surging above the crest of visible forms Until the ape caste?—oh, what ages they are— But still creation flies on wings of light!— Then to the man who roamed the frozen fields, Neither man nor ape?—we found his jaw, You know, At Heidelberg, in a sand-pit. On and on Till Babylon was builded, and arose Jerusalem and Memphis, Athens, Rome, Venice and Florence, Paris, London, Berlin, New York. Chicago—did You know, I ask, All this would come of You in ether moving?