The rose? No rose unless it disentwine

From Venus' wreath the while she bends to kiss

Her deathly love?

VII

Plain retrogression, this!

No, no: we poets go not back at all:

What you did we could do—from great to small

Sinking assuredly: if this world last

One moment longer when Man finds its Past

Exceed its Present—blame the Protoplast!