Page:The Poems of Henry Abbey.djvu/17



As thoughts possess the fashion of the mood

That gave them birth, so every deed we do

Partakes of our inborn disquietude

That spurns the old and reaches toward the new.

The noblest works of human art and pride

Show that their makers were not satisfied.

For, looking down the ladder of our deeds,

The rounds seem slender: all past work appears

Unto the doer faulty: the heart bleeds,

And pale Regret comes weltering in tears,

To think how poor our best has been, how vain,

Beside the excellence we would attain.

journey up the storied Nile;

The timeless water seems to smile;

The slow and swarthy boatman sings;

The dahabëah spreads her wings;

We catch the breeze and sail away,

Along the dawning of the day,

Along the East, wherein the morn

Of life and truth was gladly born.

We sail along the past, and see

Great Thebes with Karnak at her knee.