Said Joseph: “As the moon in wane and change at last.”
At change, the new moon’s bent in two, a poor weak thing,
But ripens to the full apace, night’s matchless king.[339]
Pearls in a mortar pounded are, by chance, sometimes;
Still, they’re esteemed a joy to glad eyes in all climes.15
Then, grains of wheat are cast into the lowly earth;
But golden ears thence spring, a source of glee and mirth.
These, too, are ground to dust in mill;—vile as to show;
Increased in value, thence, bread it becomes, we know.
Again ’tis crushed between the teeth; to chyme it turns,