Should we come back having forgotten all

The wisdom which all spirits needs must know?

Would the old faults revive, the old scars sting,

The old capacities for suffering

Quicken to life even in our quickening?

Oh, lovely myth, with just this marring stain!

I will not think that such deep wrong can be.

If ever it were given to one again

Earthward to turn in answer to Love’s plea,

Surely ’twould come in hushed and reverent guise,