II.If that apparent part of life’s delightOur tingled flesh-sense circumscribes were seenBy aught save reflex and co-carnal sight,Joy, flesh and life might prove but a gross screen.Haply Truth’s body is no eyable being,Appearance even as appearance lies,Haply our close, dark, vague, warm sense of seeingIs the choked vision of blindfolded eyes.Wherefrom what comes to thought’s sense of life? Nought.All is either the irrational world we seeOr some aught-else whose being-unknown doth rotIts use for our thought’s use. Whence taketh meA qualm-like ache of life, a body-deepSoul-hate of what we seek and what we weep.
If that apparent part of life’s delightOur tingled flesh-sense circumscribes were seenBy aught save reflex and co-carnal sight,Joy, flesh and life might prove but a gross screen.Haply Truth’s body is no eyable being,Appearance even as appearance lies,Haply our close, dark, vague, warm sense of seeingIs the choked vision of blindfolded eyes.Wherefrom what comes to thought’s sense of life? Nought.All is either the irrational world we seeOr some aught-else whose being-unknown doth rotIts use for our thought’s use. Whence taketh meA qualm-like ache of life, a body-deepSoul-hate of what we seek and what we weep.