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25
THE TWINS.
Know ye the fate of that unhappy Twin
Who, to his brother bound by fleshy tie
Unseverable, woke one day to find
That brother dead, and felt himself alive?
And how, in frightful company with Death,
He died, of an unutterable fear?
Who, to his brother bound by fleshy tie
Unseverable, woke one day to find
That brother dead, and felt himself alive?
And how, in frightful company with Death,
He died, of an unutterable fear?
There be two other twins of ancient race,
Body and Mind, bound by like fatal tie;
Ordained to walk through life with equal step,
And under pain most horrible condemned
To leave the world together, even as
They entered it. Woe to the longer-lived!
Woe to the Body when the mind has fled,
Poor helpless clod, that knows not where to turn!
But worse the fate of the imperious Mind,
Born to create, to soar, and to command,
That wakes one day and finds its brother dead,
And calls upon him vainly to arise;
Bound to a corpse, it feels the thrill of life.
Body and Mind, bound by like fatal tie;
Ordained to walk through life with equal step,
And under pain most horrible condemned
To leave the world together, even as
They entered it. Woe to the longer-lived!
Woe to the Body when the mind has fled,
Poor helpless clod, that knows not where to turn!
But worse the fate of the imperious Mind,
Born to create, to soar, and to command,
That wakes one day and finds its brother dead,
And calls upon him vainly to arise;
Bound to a corpse, it feels the thrill of life.
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