Classic Poem

FACT AND THE MYSTIC

" G OOD-MORROW , Symbol. " — " Call me not
The name I neither love nor merit. "
— " That grave eternal name inherit,
Thine ever, though all men forgot. "

" Mistake me not; secure and free
From rock to rock my falchion passes:
But Symbols trail through grey morasses
The tattered shows of fairy. "

" My Symbol thou, of phantom blood,
With starlight from thy temples raying;
Along thy floated body playing
Are withering wings, and wings in bud. "

" Alas, thine eye with clay is sealed. "
— " Symbol, before the clay's denial,
While yet I had a god's espial,
I saw thee in a solar field! "

" Nay: I am Fact . " — " Then lose thy praise;
And lest to-day no song behoove thee,
Lest mine impeach thee, or reprove thee,
Ah, Symbol, Symbol! go thy ways. "