Colored by the fancies borrowed from tradition.

His creation gives him clue to nothing older:

Naked, life receives him—wondering beholder

Of the world about him—and ere aught is certain,

Time and mystery flout him; and death drops the curtain.

Man, the dreamer, groping after what he should be,

Cheers himself with hoping to be what he would be:

When he hopes no longer, with self-adulation,

Fancies he was stronger at his first creation:

Else—in him inhering powers of intellection—