DESESPOIR NTO the inmost agony of things She sees, through glamour of untrusty sense, The full corruption of omnipotence, The infinite rage of fishes to have wings, The lust of beasts for tentacles; caught thence . Corollary, syllogism, she strides tense Into the inmost agony of things. So, fearless, amid gods and evil kings, She sits, poor wretch, eternal scientist, Straining mild muscles, leaving to its list The spasm-shaken body. So she flings The teeth-set fate of Fortune’s face unkissed Against the fiat: sets her clenchéd fist In his face: slides spinning with her body’s twist Into the inmost agony of things. 32