So light a touch could blunt the barbéd shaft.

“Free potions have I drank of being’s cup,

And found no bitterness; the sparkling tide

Hath grown but brighter as I quaffed it up,

And if rank weeds have sprung its rim beside,

Or serpents risen, its drops contain a spell

To blast the weed, or crush the monster fell.

“Yet one thing lack I. I have sought the flow

Of kindly sympathies, and vainly sought —

Though human hearts are with me here below