Finalities

GOLD can be but gold alone,
Midas’ touch it cannot own ;
For the lightning there’s no seath,
For the fire no flaming bath.
Canst thou clarify the light,
Or in the darkness merge the night ?
Add perfection to the sphere,
Fullness to the rounded year?
Chiefdom to the sea declare,
Freedom to the ranging air ?

There is beauty past the power
Of the earth or skies to dower ;
There is joy no ministrants
Can by fondest skill enhance ;
There is pain too keen to feel
Wounding point of driven steel.

Who can seize the souls that dwell
In Sleep’s meshy citadel ?
Who to Love’s estate can add
More than Love hath ever had,
Or from one Great Vast withhold
What drew thither from of old, —
Stint the hunger-bitten rage
That devours from age to age ?