c in his day as much absorbed
Heart and soul then as Wagner's music now.
Perfect from center to circumference--
Orbed to the full can be but fully orbed:
And yet--and yet--whence comes it that "O Thou"--
Sighed by the soul at eve to Hesperus--
Will not again take wing and fly away
(Since fatal Wagner fixed it fast for us)
In some unmodulated minor? Nay,
Even by Handel's help!

Having stated the problem that confronts him, namely, the change of
fashion in music, the poet boldly goes on to declare that there is no
truer truth obtainable by man than comes of music, because it does give
direct expression to the moods of the soul, yet there is a hitch that
balks her of full triumph, namely the musical form in which these moods
are expressed does not stay fixed. This statement is enriched by a
digression upon the meaning of the soul.

VI

I state it thus:
There is no truer truth obtainable
By Man than comes of music. "Soul"--(accept
A word which vaguely names what no adept
In word-use fits and fixes so that still
Thing shall not slip word's fetter and remain
Innominate as first, yet, free again,
Is no less recognized the absolute
Fact underlying that same other fact
Concerning which no cavil can dispute
Our nomenclature when we call it "Mind"--
Something not Matter)--"Soul," who seeks shall find
Distinct beneath that something. You exact
An illustrative image? This may suit.

VII

We see a work: the worker works behind,
Invisible himself. Suppose his act
Be to o'erarch a gulf: he digs, transports,
Shapes and, through enginery--all sizes, sorts,
Lays stone by stone until a floor compact
Proves our bridged causeway. So works Mind--by stress
Of faculty, with loose facts, more or less,
Builds up our solid knowledge: all the same,
Underneath rolls what Mind may hide not tame,
An element which works beyond our guess,
Soul, the unsounded sea--whose lift of surge,
Spite of all superstructure, lets emerge,
In flower and foam, Feeling from out the deeps
Mind arrogates no mastery upon--
Distinct indisputably. Has there gone
To dig up, drag forth, render smooth from rough
Mind's flooring,--operosity enough?
Still the successive labor of each inch,
Who lists may learn: from the last turn of winch
That let the p