Like usurers that briefly lend the sun

Disfavor and a stinted while to run

With flaunting vigor through life’s large estate

Of fire and turmoil; or like thieves that hate

No law-lord save the posturing of desire

With genuflexions where dejections tire

The fig-leaf’s trophy with the fig-leaf’s weight.

Yes; they are subtle: and where no light is

These tread not openly, as heretofore,

With whisperings of that at odds with this