Advice to a Prophet

    Mad-eyed from stating the obvious，

    Not proclaiming our fall but begging us

    In God's name to have self-pity，

    Spare us all word of the weapons， their force and range，

    The long numbers that rocket the mind；

    Our slow， unreckoning hearts will be left behind，

    Unable to fear what is too strange.

    Nor shall you scare us with talk of the death of the race.

    How should we dream of this place without us？——

    The sun mere¹ fire， the leaves untroubled about us，

    A stone look on the stone's face？

    Speak of the world's own change. Though we cannot conceive

    Of an undreamt thing， we know to our cost

    How the dreamt cloud crumbles²， the vines are blackened by frost，

    How the view alters.  We could believe，

    If you told us so， that the white-tailed deer will slip

    Into perfect shade， grown perfectly³ shy，

    The lark⁴ avoid the reaches of our eye，

    The jack-pine lose its knuckled⁵ grip

    On the cold ledge⁶， and every torrent⁷ burn

    As Xanthus once， its gliding⁸ trout⁹

    Stunned¹⁰ in a twinkling.  What should we be without

    The dolphin's arc， the dove's return，

    These things in which we have seen ourselves and spoken？

    Ask us， prophet， how we shall call

    Our natures forth¹¹ when that live tongue is all

    Dispelled¹²， that glass obscured or broken

    In which we have said the rose of our love and the clean

    Horse of our courage， in which beheld¹³

    The singing locust¹⁴ of the soul unshelled，

    And all we mean or wish to mean.

    Ask us， ask us whether with the worldless rose

    Our hearts shall fail us； come demanding

    Whether there shall be lofty or long standing¹⁵

    When the bronze annals of the oak-tree close.