For all the crumblement, this abacus,

This square old yellow book,—could calculate

By this the lost proportions of the style.

This was it from, my fancy with those facts,

I used to tell the tale, turned gay to grave,

But lacked a listener seldom; such alloy,

Such substance of me interfused the gold

Which, wrought into a shapely ring therewith,

Hammered and filed, fingered and favored, last

Lay ready for the renovating wash