AT THE GRAVE OF HENRY JAMES
Conceal a pattern which shows
A
tendency to execute formative movements, to have
Definite experiences in their execution,
To rejoice in knowing it grows.
And shall I not specially bless you as, vexed with
My little inferior questions, today I stand
Beside the bed where you rest
\Vho opened such passionate arms to your
Bon
when It ran
Towards you with its overwhelming reasons pleading
All beautifully in its breast?
0
with
what innocence your hand submitted
To those formal rules that help a child to play
While your heart, fastidious as
A
delicate nun, remained true to the rare noblesse
Of
your lucid gift, and for its own sake ignored the
Resentful muttering Mass
Whose ruminant hatred of all which cannot
Be
simplified or stolen is still at large;
No death can assuage its lust
vilify the landscape of Distinction and see
heart of the Personal brought to a systolic standstill,
The Tall to diminished dust.
me, Master, from its vague incitement;
be the disciplinary image that holds
Me back from agreeable wrong
the clutch of eddying muddle, lest Proportion shed
alpine chill of her shrugging editorial shoulder
On
my loose impromptu song.
; so may I segregate my disorder
districts of prospective value: approve;
Lightly, lightly, then, may I dance
the frontier of the obvious and fumble no more
old limp pocket of the minor exhibition,
Nor riot with irrelevance.
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