XVI
One is incisive,
corrosive
;
Two retorts,
nettled,
curt, crepitant ;
Three makes
rejoinder, expansive,
explosive
;
Four overbears
them
all, strident and strepitant :
Five
. . . O Danaides, O Sieve
!
XVII
Now, they ply axes and crowbars ;
Now, they prick pins
at a tissue
Fine as a skein
of the casuist
Escobar's
Worked
on the bone of a lie.
To what
issue ?
Where is our gain
at the Two-bars ?
XVI II
Estfiiga, volvitur rota.
On we drift : where
looms
the dim port ?
One, Two, Three, Four, Five, contribute
their quota
;
Something is gained,
if one caught
but the import—
Show it us, Hughes of Saxe-Gotha !
R. Browning, Master Hugftes of Saxe-Gotha