A Poem For Today - We have seen that when the earth...

[kdick...@aol.com]

We have seen that when the earth

had to be prepared for the habitation of man

a veil, as it were, of intermediate being

was spread between him and its darkness,

in which were joined, in a subdued measure,

the stability and insensibility of the earth

and the passion and perishing of mankind.

But the heavens, also, had to be prepared

for his habitation.

Between their burning light, their deep vacuity, and man, 

as between the earth's gloom of iron substance, and man, 

a veil had to be spread of intermediate being, 

which should appease the unendurable glory 

to the level of human feebleness,

and sign the changeless motion of the heavens

with a semblance of human vicissitude.

Between the earth and man arose the leaf.

Between the heaven and man came the cloud.

His life being partly as the falling leaf,

and partly as the flying vapour.

John Ruskin