Collected Works (Vol. II)

ASCENSION DAY Curious posi- J] FLUNG out of chapel! * and church, tion of poet. Temple and hall and meeting-room, Venus’ Bower and Osiris’ Tomb,? And left the devil in the lurch, While God ? got lost in the crowd of gods,! And soul went down ® in the turbid tide Of the metaphysical lotus-eyed,® And I was-—anyhow, what’s the odds? or What isTruth? The life tolive? The thought to think? Shall I take refuge sald jesting In a tower like once Childe Roland {7 found, blind, deaf, huge, 10 ilate: but . Crowley waits Or in that forest of two hundred thousand for an answer.t Trees,® fit alike to shelter man and mouse, and— Shall I say God? Be patient, your Reverence,? I warrant you'll journey a wiser man ever hence! Let’s tap (like the negro who gets a good juice of it, 16 Cares nought if that be, or be not, God’s right use of it),'® In all that forest of verses one tree?! Yclept “ Red Cotton Nightcap Country”: How a goldsmith, between the Ravishing Virgin And a leman too rotten to put a purge in, 20 Day by day and hour by hour, In a Browningesque forest of thoughts having lost himself, Expecting a miracle, solemnly tossed himself Off from the top of a tower. Moral : don’t spoil such an excellent sport as an 25 Ample estate with a church and a courtesan ! Alternative “Truth, that’s the gold!” }# But don’t worry about it! theories OF ors I, you, or Simpkin * can get on without it! Browning’s "If life’s task be work and love’s (the soft-lippéd) ease, summary. Death’s be God’s glory ? discuss with Euripides ! 30 * The numbered notes are given at p. 190. + Bacon, ‘‘ Essay on Truth,” line 1. + ‘‘ Childe Roland to the dark Tower came.’ —BROWNING. 144