Across the threshold that I dare not shun,

I feel my strength desert me, which of yore

Did pride itself on elevated thought,

And sought the goals of life in time and space.

Once did I reckon it an easy thing

To set the brain in action and to grasp

The nature of reality by thought.

But now, when I would search the fount of life

And comprehend it as in truth it is,

My thought appears as some blunt instrument;