Page:Poetry, a magazine of verse, Volume 7 (October 1915-March 1916).djvu/89

The Conversation :A Voice: I knew.


 * Man: You knew that man was born to be destroyed;

That as an atom perfect whole, at ease, Drawn to some other atom, is broken, changed, And rises over the crest of visible things To something else—that man must pass as well Through equal transformation. And You knew The unutterable things of man's life: from the first You saw his racked Deucalion soul, that looks Backward on life that rises where he rose— Out of the stones. You saw him looking forward Over the purple mists that hide the gulf. Ere the green cell rose, even in the green cell, You saw the sequences of thought: You saw That one would say, "All's matter," and another, "All's mind;" and man's mind, which reflects the image, Could not envision it; that even worship Of what You are would be confused by cries From India or Palestine; that love Which sees itself beginning in the seeds, That fly to seek and wed each other, maims The soul at the last in loss of child or friend, Father or mother. And You knew that sex, Ranging from plants through beasts and up to us, Had ties of filth—and out of them would rise