And overthrew

The empty show and thin deceits of sex,

Pale nightmares of this barren world that vex

The soul of man, shaken by every breeze

Too faint to stir the silver olive trees

Or lift the Dryad's smallest straying tress

Frozen in her clear marble loveliness.

He, in curved lips and smiling eyes,

Hid the last secret's faint surprise

Of one who dies in fear and pain