FIE, fie! you visionary things, ye motes that dance in sunny glow,
Who base and build Eternities on briefest moment here below;

Who pass through Life liked cagèd birds, the captives of a despot will;
Still wond’ring How and When and Why, and Whence and Whither, wond’ring still;

Still wond’ring how the Marvel came because two coupling mammals chose
To slake the thirst of fleshly love, and thus the “Immortal Being” rose;

Wond’ring the Babe with staring eyes, perforce compel’d from night to day,
Gript in the giant grasp of Life like gale-born dust or wind-wrung spray;