When nothing is left but the old year dying,
Why did you bring me down to the sea?
IV
PORTRAITS
Effigy of a Nun
(Sixteenth Century)
Infinite gentleness, infinite irony
Are in this face with fast-sealed eyes,
And round this mouth that learned in loneliness
How useless their wisdom is to the wise.
In her nun’s habit carved, patiently, lovingly,