 | Vigil and vision |  |
72
THE TWO POLES.
TWO poles of Art there be, the false, the true:One negative, to whose plenipotence
Brute longing turns and sensual appetence
And humour shifting still from old to new:
The other, positive, the soul unto
Speaks and with Beauty sheer to heavens far hence
Above earth's mire uplifts the ennobled sense:
And all things gravitate between these two.
By this assay all spirits thou mayst test.
The high-tuned soul, in this our world of Will,
But Beauty follows, selfless and divine;
Whilst that to seek, which doth but interest
The Self, but stirs the ignoble sense, is still
The stamp and hall-mark of the Philistine.
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