Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/142

I elder sister by six years;
 Not half so glad, or wise, or good:
Her words rebuked my secret self
  And shamed me where I stood.

She never guessed her words reproved
 A silent envy nursed within,
A selfish, souring discontent
  Pride-born, the devil's sin,

I smiled, half bitter, half in jest:
 "The wisest man of all the wise
Left for his summary of life
  'Vanity of vanities.'

"Beneath the sun there's nothing new:
 Men flow, men ebb, mankind flows on
If I am wearied of my life,
  Why so was Solomon.

"Vanity of vanities he preached
 Of all he found, of all he sought:
Vanity of vanities, the gist
  Of all the words he taught."

This in the wisdom of the world,
 In Homer's page, in all, we find:
As the sea is not filled, so yearns
  Man's universal mind.