CAST OUT.

As to the heliotrope comes fluttering down

The peacock-butterfly, who sips and flies,

So each glad day gold-winged came to the land

And sipped its sip of time and fled away.

Now in an evil hour I hungered, and I saw

The tree of life that grew forbidden fruit.

What harm, I thought, is there to always live?

To live is happiness; but to die is pain.

The rental claimed by death falls due too soon.

So I reached forth, and took the fruit, and ate.

Then all the sky grew dark, and from the land

Malignant terrors drove me shrieking forth;

And as I fled, my youth abandoned me;

My hair turned gray, my shoulders stooped, my blood

Grew colder, and my perfect form was changed.

A weak old man with wrinkled face, I fled,

To wander in the wastes. Once I looked back

Upon the garden; over it the sky

Was soft and clear; and midway in the air

I saw Veera between two angels, borne

To heaven. So I turned again and fled.