V

Lo! I am Beauty's constant thrall,

Must ever on her voice await,

And follow through the maze of Fate

Her luring, strange and mystical.

Obedient to her summonings,

Forever must my soul aspire,

And seek, on wings of lyric fire,

To penetrate the Heart of Things,

Wherein she sits, augustly throned,

In loveliness that renders dumb —

The Essence and the final Sum —

With peril and with wonder zoned

What though I fail, my duller sense

Baffled as by a wall of stone?

The high desire, the search alone

Are their own prize and recompense.