DUMB!

                    GABRIEL whispered in mine ear
                       His archangelic poesie.
                    How can I write?  I only hear
                       The sobbing murmur of the sea.

                    Raphael breathed and bade me pass
                       His rapt evangel to mankind;
                    I cannot even match, alas!
                       The ululation of the wind.

                    The gross grey gods like gargoyles spit
                       On every poet's holy head;
                    No mustard-seed of truth or wit
                       In those curst furrows, quick or dead!

                    A tithe of what I know would cleanse
                       The leprosy of earth; and I ---
                    My limits are like other men's.
                       I must live dumb, and dumb must die!

{101}