I saw their lives curl upward like a wave
And break. And after all it had not broken—
It might have broken even across the grave
Of tendencies unknown and questions never spoken.
The drums of life were beating on their skulls;
The floods of life were swaying in their brains.

A ring of silence closes round me and annuls
These sudden insights that have marched across
Like railway-engines over desert plains.

The world of contact sprang up like a blow
The winds beyond the world had passed without a trace
I saw that Time began again its slow
Attrition on a hard resistant face.

Yet to burst out at last, ingenuous and pure
Surprised, but knowing—it is triumph not en--
durable to miss!
Not to set free the purity that clings
To the cautious midnight of its chrysalis
Lies in its cell and meditates its wings
Nourished in earth and stimulated by manure.
—I am sure it is like this
I am sure it is this
I am sure.