Stupidity and malice, to that hole

O'er which survivors croak 'Respect the dead!'

Ay, for I needs must! But allow me clutch

Only a carrion-handful, lend it sense,

(Mine, not its own, or could it answer me?)

And question, 'You, I pluck from hiding-place,

Whose cant was, certain years ago, my "Clouds"

Might last until the swallows came with Spring—

Whose chatter, "Birds" are unintelligible,

Mere psychologic puzzling: poetry?