Here's one in whom Nature feared--faint at such vying -Eclipse while he lived, and decease at his dying.
"I HAVE LIVED WITH SHADES"
II have lived with shades so long, And talked to them so oft, Since forth from cot and croft I went mankind among, That sometimes they In their dim style Will pause awhile To hear my say;IIAnd take me by the hand, And lead me through their rooms In the To-be, where Dooms Half-wove and shapeless stand:
And show from there The dwindled dust And rot and rust Of things that were.
III
"Now turn," spake they to me One day: "Look whence we came, And signify his name Who gazes thence at thee." ---"Nor name nor race Know I, or can,"I said, "Of man So commonplace.
IV
"He moves me not at all;
I note no ray or jot Of rareness in his lot, Or star exceptional.
Into the dim Dead throngs around He'll sink, nor sound Be left of him."V"Yet," said they, "his frail speech, Hath accents pitched like thine -Thy mould and his define A likeness each to each -But go! Deep pain Alas, would be His name to thee, And told in vain!"Feb. 2, 1899.
