15. "False!" I cry: Men tell me of truth now Of beauty-"A mask, friend! Look beneath!" We take our own method, the Devil and I, With pleasant and fair and wise and rare : And the best we wish to what lives, is Which even in wishing, perhaps we lie! death; 16. Far better commit a fault and have done · As you, dear! forever; and choose the And look where the healing waters run, And strive and strain to be good again, pure, 17. Misery! What shall I say or do? I cannot advise, or, at least, persuade : Most like, you are glad you deceived me No whit of the wrong: you endured too long, Have done no evil and want no aid, Will live the old life out and chance the new. 18. And your sentence is written all the same, And I can do nothing, pray, perhaps : But somehow the world If I if I curse, pray, And pursues its game, for better or worse: my faith is torn to a thousand scraps, And my heart feels ice while my words breathe flame. 19. Dear, I look from my hiding-place. Are you still so fair? Have you still the eyes? Be happy! Add but the other grace, Be good! Why want what the angels vaunt? I knew you once: but in Paradise, If we meet, I will pass nor turn my face. |