27. Fool! All that is, at all, Lasts ever, past recall; Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: What entered into thee, That was, is, and shall be: Time's wheel runs back or stops; Potter and clay endure. 28. He fixed thee mid this dance Of plastic circumstance, This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: Machinery just meant To give thy soul its bent, Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed. 29. What though the earlier grooves Which ran the laughing loves Around thy base, no longer pause and press ? What though, about thy rim, Scull-things in order grim Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress? 30. Look not thou down, but up! To uses of a cup, The festal board, lamp's flash, and trumpet's peal, The new wine's foaming flow, The Master's lips aglow! Thou, heaven's consummate cup, what needst thou with earth's wheel? 31. But I need, now as then, Thee, God, who mouldest men ; And since, not even while the whirl was worst, With shapes and colors rife, Bound dizzily, - mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst : 32. So, take and use Thy work! Amend what flaws may lurk, What strain o' the stuff, what warpings past the aim! My times be in Thy hand! Perfect the cup as planned! Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same! |