To some dull inner pool that teemed and stank

With formless evil, into that morass

Gazed, and saw darkly there, as in a glass,

The foul shape of some weakly envied sin.

For each man builds a world and dwells therein.

Nor could these know what mocking ghost of Spring

Stirred Hugh’s gray world with dreams of blossoming

That wooed no seed to swell or bird to sing.

So might a dawn-struck digit of the moon

Dream back the rain of some old lunar June