Another glanced; so, dazzled by my wealth,

I knew not which to leave nor which to choose,

For all so floated, naught was fixed and firm.

And then thou said'st a perfect bard was one

Who chronicled the stages of all life,

And so thou bad'st me shadow this first stage.

'T is done, and even now I recognize

The shift, the change from last to past—discern

Faintly how life is truth and truth is good.

And why thou must be mine is, that e'en now