The Winged Beetle

THE GARDEN OF JANUS 41 And that which inward did for ever tend Came at the last to have come out ; And I who had the World and God to friend Found all three foes ! Drowned in that sea of changes, vacancies, and woes ! XXI Yet all that Sea was swallowed up therein ; So they were not, and it was not. As who should sweat his soul out through the skin And find (sad fool !) he had begot All that without him that he had left in And in himself All he had taken out thereof, a mocking elf ! XXII But now that all was gone, great Pan appeared. Him then I strove to woo, to win Kissing his curled lips, playing with his beard, Setting his brain a-shake, a-spin, By that strong wand, and muttering of the weird That only I Knew of all souls alive or dead beneath the sky. XXIII So still I conquered, and the vision passed. Yet still was beaten for I knew Myself was He, Himself, the first and last ; And as an unicorn drinks dew