This human instrument, traced its delicate tree

Of nerves, discovering how the life-blood flows

Out of the heart, through every branching vein;

And how, in age, the thickening arteries close

And the red streams no longer feed this frame,

And the parched body starves at last and dies.

I have built bridges. Armies tread them now.

The rains will come. The torrents will roll down

And sweep them headlong to the sea, one day.

I have painted pictures. Let cicalas chirrup