YCBA Collections Search

Lettered upper center: "And none but Bromion can hear my lamentations. | With what sense is it that the chicken shuns the ravenous hawk? With what sense does the tame pigeon measure out the expanse? With what sense does the bee form cells? have not the mouse & frog Eyes and ears and sense of touch? yet are their habitations. And their pursuits, as different as their forms and as their joys: Ask the wild ass why he refuses burdens: and the meek camel Why he loves man: is it because of eye ear mouth or skin Or breathing nostrils? No, for these the wolf and tyger have. Ask the blind worm the secrets of the grave, and why her spires Love to curl round the bones of death! and ask the rav'nous snake Where she gets poison: & the wing'd eagle why he loves the sun And then tell me the thoughts of man, which have been hid of old. | Silent I hover all the night, and all day could be silent, If Theotormon once would turn his loved eyes upon me; How can I be defild when I reflect thy image pure? Sweetest the fruit that the worms feeds on. & the soul prey'd on by woe, The new wash'd lamb ting'd with the village smoke & the bright swan By the red earth of our immortal river: I bathe my wings, And I am white and pure to hover round Theotormons breast. | Then Theotormon broke his silence, and he answered. Tell me what is the night or day to one o'erflowd with woe? Tell me what is a thought? & of what substance is it made? Tell me what is a joy? & in what gardens do joys grow? And in what rivers swim the sorrows? and upon what mountains"; on verso: "Wave shadows of discontent! and in what houses dwell the wretched Drunken with a woe forgotten. and shut up from cold despair, | Tell me where dwell the thoughts forgotten till thou call them forth Tell me where dwell the joys of old! & where the ancient loves? And when will they renew again & the night of oblivion past? That I might traverse times and spaces far remote and bring Comforts into a pre[s]ent sorrow and a night of pain Where goest thou O thought! to what remote land is thy flight? If thou returnest to the present moment of affliction Wilt thou bring comforts on thy wings, and dews and honey and balm; Or poison from the desart wilds, from the eyes of the envier. | Then Bromion said: and shook the cavern with his lamentation | Thou knowest that the ancient trees seen by thy eyes have fruit; But knowest thou that trees and fruit flourish upon the earth To gratify senses unknown? trees beasts and birds unknown: Unknown, not unperceived, spread in the infinite microscope, In places yet unvisited by the voyager. and in worlds Over another kind of seas, and in atmospheres unknown. Ah! are there other wars, beside the wars of sword and fire! And are there other sorrows, beside the sorrows of poverty? And are there other joys, beside the joys of riches and ease? And is there not one law for both the lion and the ox? And is there not eternal fire, and eternal chains? To bind the phantoms of existence from eternal life? | Then Oothoon waited silent all the day, and all the night"