Page:The heptalogia, or, The seven against sense - a cap with seven bells (IA heptalogiaorseve00swin).pdf/23

IV.

Time feels his tooth slip on husks wet from Truth's lip, which drops them and grins—

Shells where no throb stirs of life left in lobsters since joy thrilled their fins—
Hues of the prawn's tail or comb that makes dawn stale,^[1] so red for our sins!

V.

Years blind and deaf use the soul's joys as refuse, heart's peace as manure,

Reared whence, next June's rose shall bloom where our moons rose last year, just as pure:
Moons' ends match roses' ends: men by beasts' noses' ends mete sin's stink's cure.

1. 'Whose youth and freshness
   Wrinkles Apollo's, and makes stale the morning.'—Shakespeare.