Page:The madman, his parables and poems.djvu/57

 In your eyes I have read

That to be enthroned is to be enslaved,

And to be understood is to be levelled down,

And to be grasped is but to reach one's fulness

And like a ripe fruit to fall and be consumed.

Defeat, my Defeat, my bold companion,

You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences,

And none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings,

And urging of seas,

And of mountains that burn in the night,

And you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul.

Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage,

You and I shall laugh together with the storm, [47]