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Every market is in transition.

quote by Kenneth Lay
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European Christmas Market

Life is busy around Albert Square
In December every year
Christmas market in full swing
For shopping and a glass of beer

Stalls are cluttered one by one
Amid the crowded streets
Vendors displaying their festive wares
In order to compete

Christmas music in the background
To put one in the mood
Aroma of bratwurst sizzling on the coals
Pangs of hunger need some food

People always in a hurry
Last minute presents to buy
Gifts from all over Europe
To tempt the shoppers eye

Energy and money both well spent
To depart it's almost time
But not before a Christmas toast
With a mug of hot mulled wine

poem by Lynne Howard
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Transition Point for M' lady Koyel Mitra

Transition point

The Sun as if reluctantly
sinks to the surface of the sea.
At meeting place of sea and sky,
a focal point which draws the eye.

Every shade of red that’s known
to man and some to God alone.
Were displayed in the western sky
As though determined to deny.

Approaching night its victory.
Then darkness fell quite suddenly
The reds transforming completely.
To dark blue lightened by the glow.

Of stars appearing one by one.
The last vestige of daylight gone.
The world below lay silently
an air of hushed expectancy.

A moment of serenity
which soothed my soul, enraptured me.
This spell was only broken by
the moon arising in the sky.

4-Sep-08

http: // blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers

poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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The Sailor and the Market Man

'I ask you to see reason'
Says the sailor who is stern;
'You know full well that from the sea
A living I must earn;
I'll bother you to shake on it,
I haven't got all day;
Come on now make your mind up,
It ain't a lot to pay! '

'My friend, your price is far too high'
The market-man declares,
'Go find another buyer now
Who'll rid you of your wares.
I know the fish you bring to sell
Are fat and fresh and sound,
But I must make a living too
By watching every pound.'

The sailor and the market-man
They argue every day,
As if there's no tomorrow,
And each must have his say.
The sailor and the market-man
At odds they'll always be,
Until they've taken all
The little fishes from the sea.

Written Dec 1994

poem by John Carter Brown
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I'm saying every day

373

I'm saying every day
"If I should be a Queen, tomorrow"—
I'd do this way—
And so I deck, a little,

If it be, I wake a Bourbon,
None on me, bend supercilious—
With "This was she—
Begged in the Market place—
Yesterday."

Court is a stately place—
I've heard men say—
So I loop my apron, against the Majesty
With bright Pins of Buttercup—
That not too plain—
Rank—overtake me—

And perch my Tongue
On Twigs of singing—rather high—
But this, might be my brief Term
To qualify—

Put from my simple speech all plain word—
Take other accents, as such I heard
Though but for the Cricket—just,
And but for the Bee—
Not in all the Meadow—
One accost me—

Better to be ready—
Than did next morn
Meet me in Aragon—
My old Gown—on—

And the surprised Air
Rustics—wear—
Summoned&mdas h;unexpectedly—
To Exeter—

poem by Emily Dickinson
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On Cutting Down The Thorn At Market-Hill

At Market-Hill, as well appears
By chronicle of ancient date,
There stood for many hundred years
A spacious thorn before the gate.

Hither came every village maid,
And on the boughs her garland hung,
And here, beneath the spreading shade,
Secure from satyrs sat and sung.

Sir Archibald, that valorous knight.
The lord of all the fruitful plain,
Would come to listen with delight,
For he was fond of rural strain.

(Sir Archibald, whose favourite name
Shall stand for ages on record,
By Scottish bards of highest fame,
Wise Hawthornden and Stirling's lord.)

But time with iron teeth, I ween,
Has canker'd all its branches round;
No fruit or blossom to be seen,
Its head reclining toward the ground.

This aged, sickly, sapless thorn,
Which must, alas! no longer stand,
Behold the cruel Dean in scorn
Cuts down with sacrilegious hand.

Dame Nature, when she saw the blow,
Astonish'd gave a dreadful shriek;
And mother Tellus trembled so,
She scarce recover'd in a week.

The Sylvan powers, with fear perplex'd,
In prudence and compassion sent
(For none could tell whose turn was next)
Sad omens of the dire event.

The magpie, lighting on the stock,
Stood chattering with incessant din:
And with her beak gave many a knock,
To rouse and warn the nymph within.

The owl foresaw, in pensive mood,
The ruin of her ancient seat;
And fled in haste, with all her brood,
To seek a more secure retreat.

Last trotted forth the gentle swine,
To ease her itch against the stump,
And dismally was heard to whine,
All as she scrubb'd her meazly rump.

The nymph who dwells in every tree,
(If all be true that poets chant,)
Condemn'd by Fate's supreme decree,
Must die with her expiring plant.

Thus, when the gentle Spina found
The thorn committed to her care,
Received its last and deadly wound,
She fled, and vanish'd into air.

But from the root a dismal groan
First issuing struck the murderer's ears:
And, in a shrill revengeful tone,
This prophecy he trembling hears:

'Thou chief contriver of my fall,
Relentless Dean, to mischief born;
My kindred oft thine hide shall gall,
Thy gown and cassock oft be torn.

'And thy confederate dame, who brags
That she condemn'd me to the fire,
Shall rend her petticoats to rags,
And wound her legs with every brier.

'Nor thou, Lord Arthur, shall escape;
To thee I often call'd in vain,
Against that assassin in crape;
Yet thou couldst tamely see me slain:

'Nor, when I felt the dreadful blow,
Or chid the Dean, or pinch'd thy spouse;
Since you could see me treated so,
(An old retainer to your house

'May that fell Dean, by whose command
Was form'd this Machiavelian plot,
Not leave a thistle on thy land;
Then who will own thee for a Scot?

'Pigs and fanatics, cows and teagues,
Through all my empire I foresee,
To tear thy hedges join in leagues,
Sworn to revenge my thorn and me.

'And thou, the wretch ordain'd by fate,
Neal Gahagan, Hibernian clown,
With hatchet blunter than thy pate,
To hack my hallow'd timber down;

'When thou, suspended high in air,
Diest on a more ignoble tree,
(For thou shall steal thy landlord's mare,)
Then, bloody caitiff! think on me.'

poem by Jonathan Swift
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The Revolution At Market-Hill

From distant regions Fortune sends
An odd triumvirate of friends;
Where Phoebus pays a scanty stipend,
Where never yet a codling ripen'd:
Hither the frantic goddess draws
Three sufferers in a ruin'd cause:
By faction banish'd, here unite,
A Dean, a Spaniard, and a Knight;
Unite, but on conditions cruel;
The Dean and Spaniard find it too well,
Condemn'd to live in service hard;
On either side his honour's guard:
The Dean to guard his honour's back,
Must build a castle at Drumlack;
The Spaniard, sore against his will,
Must raise a fort at Market-Hill.
And thus the pair of humble gentry
At north and south are posted sentry;
While in his lordly castle fixt,
The knight triumphant reigns betwixt:
And, what the wretches most resent,
To be his slaves, must pay him rent;
Attend him daily as their chief,
Decant his wine, and carve his beef.
O Fortune! 'tis a scandal for thee
To smile on those who are least worthy:
Weigh but the merits of the three,
His slaves have ten times more than he.
Proud baronet of Nova Scotia!
The Dean and Spaniard must reproach ye:
Of their two fames the world enough rings:
Where are thy services and sufferings?
What if for nothing once you kiss'd,
Against the grain, a monarch's fist?
What if, among the courtly tribe,
You lost a place and saved a bribe?
And then in surly mood came here,
To fifteen hundred pounds a-year,
And fierce against the Whigs harangu'd?
You never ventured to be hang'd.
How dare you treat your betters thus?
Are you to be compared with us?
Come, Spaniard, let us from our farms
Call forth our cottagers to arms:
Our forces let us both unite,
Attack the foe at left and right;
From Market-Hill's exalted head,
Full northward let your troops be led;
While I from Drapier's-Mount descend,
And to the south my squadrons bend.
New-River Walk, with friendly shade,
Shall keep my host in ambuscade;
While you, from where the basin stands,
Shall scale the rampart with your bands.
Nor need we doubt the fort to win;
I hold intelligence within.
True, Lady Anne no danger fears,
Brave as the Upton fan she wears;
Then, lest upon our first attack
Her valiant arm should force us back,
And we of all our hopes deprived;
I have a stratagem contrived.
By these embroider'd high-heel shoes
She shall be caught as in a noose:
So well contriv'd her toes to pinch,
She'll not have power to stir an inch:
These gaudy shoes must Hannah place
Direct before her lady's face;
The shoes put on, our faithful portress
Admits us in, to storm the fortress,
While tortured madam bound remains,
Like Montezume, in golden chains;
Or like a cat with walnuts shod,
Stumbling at every step she trod.
Sly hunters thus, in Borneo's isle,
To catch a monkey by a wile,
The mimic animal amuse;
They place before him gloves and shoes;
Which, when the brute puts awkward on:
All his agility is gone;
In vain to frisk or climb he tries;
The huntsmen seize the grinning prize.
But let us on our first assault
Secure the larder and the vault;
The valiant Dennis, you must fix on,
And I'll engage with Peggy Dixon:
Then, if we once can seize the key
And chest that keeps my lady's tea,
They must surrender at discretion!
And, soon as we have gain'd possession,
We'll act as other conquerors do,
Divide the realm between us two;
Then, (let me see,) we'll make the knight
Our clerk, for he can read and write.
But must not think, I tell him that,
Like Lorimer to wear his hat;
Yet, when we dine without a friend,
We'll place him at the lower end.
Madam, whose skill does all in dress lie,
May serve to wait on Mrs. Leslie;
But, lest it might not be so proper
That her own maid should over-top her,
To mortify the creature more,
We'll take her heels five inches lower.
For Hannah, when we have no need of her,
'Twill be our interest to get rid of her;
And when we execute our plot,
'Tis best to hang her on the spot;
As all your politicians wise,
Dispatch the rogues by whom they rise.

poem by Jonathan Swift
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Every Word Turns Away

Every word turns away
shame-faced and a liar
when you try to say things so true
they could only be contaminated
by a mouth.
And the tree in your voice
may be its own guitar
and every flower of your breath
be rooted in stars like the wind,
and you can spend a whole lifetime
trying to say everything
as if words could exact living destinies
from the names on the scrolls of the dead
to save everyone, to save
everything that exists
from nothing,
but when you're done,
when the tree falls silent
and the bird has flown away,
everything, just as it is,
will still be left unsaid
and just as there is no likeness for the living
there will be no likeness for the dead.
It is the unsayability of the mystic theme
that runs through us like a road through a dream
or the poem in our bloodstream
that is the cosmological constant
that keeps on expressing us
like waves of its own water
though we go looking for ourselves
like empty cups
to fill the topics of our names
forgetting like the moon
that water is its own chalice.
Why kneel by the water like the moon
to drink from your own face
as if it tasted any different downstream
than it did when you were a cloud
high on the mountain
when you can taste
the facelessness of the sea in everything
if you drink deep enough?
And there are eyes full of wine
waiting to get drunk on you
that haven't bloomed yet
and wells that your tears
are still falling through
like plumb-bobs and pennies
that haven't reached bottom yet,
and deaths that are antiquely your own
you must rise from
like the hosts of the morning glory
to show the gaping bells of your irrefutable ghosts
it can be done.
Words have bad memories.
Words are troubled sleep and nightmares.
Words are dead trees in a winter swamp
that couldn't wake a mosquito up.
Words are the ring of the gold on the counter top
that tells you it isn't true.
Words are a snakepit of spray bombs
that go off like terrorists
on any average day
in the market-heart of the silence.
Words are wanted posters
nailing their own likenesses
to the crucifix of a telephone pole
to divert their detection like water
from the tines
and witching wands of the lightning
that seeks them out like humans alone in the open.
And if you try to say the unsayable
by smearing the view
with a new holy book
what have you said
that isn't just more graffiti
scratched on a face reserved for God,
or the vast scream of the dawn
just before you wake up from the dream
to discover you're gone?
Words are the negative space
we use to delineate
the shapes of ourselves
when we talk ourselves
like water into fish,
like infinite, open-mouthed skies
that have winged their way into words
like autumn rain in the hearts of the waterbirds
that leave no trace behind.
Words are blind. And eyeless.
Words are boulders
in the throat of the impasse
when the mountain tries to speak
of things that last,
or mud in the stream of the valley
when it lowers its gaze like a poem
to whisper of things that pass.
Words turn the spell
on the sorcerer
and dangle him
like a participial puppet
from the strings
of his own grammar,
his own magic,
like stars in farcical cocoons
on the trophy-lines of his webs.
Why rummage through
the wardrobe of a wave
for something to cover your nakedness
when every time you go swimming
you can wear the sea?
Take a page out of the book of the stars
and keep words behind you
like seagulls in the wake of your shining
so by the time anyone can see you
that's not who you are.
Words are living creatures,
words are all eyes and ears
as vivid and vital as yours
looking out from under the autumn leaves
like a flower pressed into a book
that gives it no meaning
that it didn't have in the fields.
Ignorance doesn't eclipse the light
and enlightenment doesn't illuminate.
You may talk forever around it
but what's the meaning of fire
or sit by the mindstream all night
making constellations of the fireflies
that come together like words
and there may be no separation
between the water
and the reflections of the stars
that ride it like long-legged spiders,
or between you and the earth,
not so much difference
as a razorblade of stargrass,
but what's the meaning of water,
what's the meaning of the earth under your feet,
what's the meaning of that blade of chlorophyll?
Words speak for themselves,
not anything else.
Words are living voices
not harps in the throats of the dead.
A word is not a thought,
not an emotion,
not a stand-in for reality
not the verbal version
of the stem cells on your tongue,
or the eloquent fragrance of a brain
recruiting bees to chafe their pollen into honey.
You can spend a whole lifetime saying
and still not know what a word is,
a whole lifetime feeling
and not know what emotion is,
a whole lifetime thinking
and not know what a thought is.
Beyond appearances
that are not wholly
at the discretion of the depths,
nothing is the likeness of anything else
in the unity of their uniqueness,
the oneness of their oneness,
the mystic specificity
of many rivers
unspooling the mountain
to weave this infinite sea of awareness
into the myriad forms and tongues and waves of us
who take on minds and hang
like empty cups and water droplets
as if we were mere slips of the tongue
on the leaves of the morning glory,
from our own hooked fingers,
the black crescents of the lunar triggers
that play Russian roulette with our heads,
and the dreams that fit us like skin
and the lean watercolours of our sweat
on form-fitted sheets
when our separation troubles us
like waves trying to say the unsayable sea
to islands that already flow
like clear diamonds
that have mastered the yoga of tears.
Everything's like that
when things turn from solid to real.
Even these words.
Even in the fireflies
no one ever sees
deep in the well of the word,
even in the human heart,
the star, the rock, the tree,
in the smallest eye of water
that ever looked upon a summer sky,
the unsayable sea
of the whole of this multiverse
that sheds worlds like cool petals
from the sea mouths of the mind,
the life of everything
effortlessly exists
to explore its own weather
like water, to hold
its own life like a jewel
up to the light
and see everyone crowned
in a palace of water
whenever you say your name
to the stars
just to let them know
that you were here once
as if you meant it.

poem by Patrick White
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Oxymoron

Oxymoron:
fresh fish

*********

JBO:

'The beach at Sanibel... an Arlington Cemetery of shells.'
*
Every suffocated or strangled fish is first given
waterboarding sensations.
*
Fishes more frequently than
mammals or birds are cut open
alive, while their eyes watch
the knifing of others and their
gills struggle for absent air.

Fish cannot scream.
Greed for suffocated fish flesh causes seals to be clubbed in Canada, Norway, S Africa etc., dolphins to be knifed in Japan, whales to be murdered by
Norwegian Japanese Icelandic and American Inuit fishermen, bears
to be murdered in Alaska, untold thousands of fishermen to
be lost in tsunamis,700 Bangladesh fishermen lost in just 1 storm, Thai fishermen working for slave wages, tens of millions around
the world to die of stomach cancer, food poisoning etc.**

What's in fish? unreported Mad Fish
Disease, nuclear toxins a million
times more concentrated than in
sea water, AIDS from unprocessed
human waste dumped into
the oceans, hepatitis, anaphylactic shock, ecoli,
and other food poisoning,
throat, stomach and other cancers,
mercury, lead, cadmium, arsenic, pbb's, pcb's, thousands
of carcinogenic industrial waste products, and heavy metal sired
brain damage, pfiesteria (red tide) which poisons the fishes

FISH CAN'T SCREAM, FISH TOXINS, FISH STORIES

Are all anglers stranglers?

Dick Gregory: Eating fish liver oil is like eating the filter out of a car.

I
MERCURY, PCB'S AND OTHER NEUROTOXIC METALS HARM BRAIN AS DOES AMYLOID PLAQUE, CORRELATED TO ALZHEIMER'S, A BYPRODUCT OF ANIMAL AND FISH PROTEIN

The next time you hear an ad promoting omega 3 fatty acids in fish, please remember that the Inuit have the
lowest life expectancy in the world and eat the most fish, that such acids are full of some of the toxins listed
below. They damage memory and cause cancer. Omega 3 fatty acids are the slop along with oil and blood
ending up on the fish trawler floor.
The trash mongering industries
think the public are suckers.

While articles in corporate media tout fish as brain food, the high mercury levels in fish cause memory and mental function loss.
'Symptoms of amnesic shellfish poisoning include possible permanent short-term memory loss.' * The cultures eating the most fish (Inuit) have the lowest life expectancy of
any group surviving to adulthood, while the Japanese who eat high amounts of fish have as their number 1 cause of death fish correlated stomach cancer. Toxins in fish include selenium, mercury, chromium, lead, arsenic, pcb's, pbb's, pvc's, cadmium,
radioactive strontium, fire retardant,
insecticides and female hormones dumped into the seas
from waterways,
and every other nonbiodegradable toxin which is 100 to 1000 times more concentrated in the flesh of fish than in the water. (Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring dealt with among other things the massive loss of bird and fish
life from DDT. Fish is the antibrain food as fruitarian and vegetarian
geniuses DaVinci, Einstein, Ramanujan, Mary Shelley and
others can attest. Linus Pauling, only person to win a Nobel Prize both for peace and his discovery of 6
elements, has written that an orthmolecule is a fruit
molecule. They are the most similar to the neural
transmitters in the brain. There is no vitamin C (speeds flow
of nerve signals across synapses) in fish or animal flesh
or in animal products.) The EPA issued 3500 warnings against fish consumption in one year alone. Arsenic poisoning (arsenic from the oceans is concentrated in the
flesh of fishes) creates lesions and warts on the hands.
Radioactive waste dumped directly into the ocean by some
nuclear nations concentrates poisons in fish as well.*

While neocons attempt to blame
Russia for thallium poisoning,
they obscure the fact that thallium
is frequently found in mussels and
clams

II NUCLEAR WASTE CONCENTRATED
IN FISH

Several countries are dumping
nuclear waste directly into the ocean.
Such poisons concentrate in
ratios of 1000 to 1000000 times
in the flesh of fish, termed
the top of the sea food chain.

III AIDS AND SHELLFISH

We know that hepatitis and ecoli (colon bacteria) are caused
by the coprophagous (sh*teating) habits of bottom feeding shellfish. and anaphylactic shock which can be fatal from eating decayed fish
(whether or not their decay is apparent) . But what is underreported
is the relationship of AIDS to
fish as unprocessed human waste
in many cities around the world
from Mexico, Baltimore and New York,
to Asia.. is dumped directly into
the ocean. Shellfish eat not only
the waste but the mucus with which
it is entwined.

One can see pictures of fishermen molesting lobsters by
netting them, the lobsters' claws holding toilet paper

IV A
STOMACH CANCER

One national cancer association reports that fish consumption is
related to stomach cancer.. Those countries with the highest fish
consumption having the highest rates. Included are Korea, Japan,
Chile,
Norway and others. Those countries with the highest
meat consumption (Canada, Australia, the US, Chile,
Argentina, etc.) have the highest intestinal cancer rates.

IV B THROAT CANCER

An Italian environmental group
has issued a press release on oil
spills impacting fishes and the
throats of those who eat them.

IVC
INTESTINAL CANCER AND CONSTIPATION

There is no natural bulk in fish. It is naturally constipating. While
meat causes most intestinal cancers, fish is a cause as well.

IVD
PROSTATE UTERINE AND BREAST CANCER FROM FISH

Skyrocketing rates of
prostate, uterine and breast cancer in the US come from
female hormones given to cows, sheep pigs
chickens etc to cause their water weight gain before death. The urine from these factory farmed animals
is dumped into the waterways causing fish to have
cancerous growths. If they are eaten by humans before
they die they can cause cancer in human beings, just as
a chicken can transmit leukemia (though the multi trillion
dollar chicken industry calls leukemia leukosis when they
don't manage to hide chicken cancer altogether.)

V
FOOD POISONING

Fish flesh is from a rotting cadaver and therefore can cause food poisoning (ptomaine, brucellosis,
toxoplasmosis, salmonella,
ecoli) . Anaphylactic shock frequently causes death to those who
eat shellfish. It is universally known that dead fish stink (as
do all cadavers) . Choking on fish bones has been common throughout the
centuries. Urticaria or hives is one less lethal but allergic reaction
to fish consumption.

The Texas Dept. of Health stated in one year that 245 people had been victims of
illness from oysters in Galveston Bay. The bacterium is Vibrio
parahaemolyticus.208 people have had oyster illness in the Northwest.

U.S. News and World Report Nov 24,1997: One of the strains
causing
food poisoning in shellfish is Vibria Vulnificus.

VI
KIDNEY PROBLEMS

The ketosis from high animal protein diets leads not only
to bleeding ulcers but to kidney shutdown and blocked urethras.

VII
FISH DISEASES

NPR November 6,1997: Dr. James Porter of the Univ. of Athens at
Georgia was studying the many new fishes diseases such as black band and white pox. He reported that increased shipping, increased pollution,
and overfishing (an oxymoron since all fishing is overfishing) are factors for the rise.

Pfiesteria or red tide poisons the fish. One of its causes
is the quatrillions of gallons of pig waste from the factory
farms of millions of captive pigs in Virginia, North Carolina etc.

VIII
PISCEAN SPONGIFORM ENCEPHALITIS OR MAD FISH DISEASE

In addition is the emerging truth of piscean spongiform encephalopathy or Mad Fish Disease as both
A. factory farmed fish are being fed bone meal and
B. ocean fish are eating the parts of other animals
C. shrimp fishermen and other fishermen bait hooks with pet food

Manganese from insecticides combines with prions of BSE

IX
HEART DISEASE AND ARTHRITIS
The uric acid in fish is trioxypurine, more powerful than caffein, and is correlated to arthritis as it crystallizes in needle formation around the joints. It also
adds to the incidence of heart disease and stroke, stimulating the
heart unnaturally.

IX B ADDICTION
The uric acid or trioxypurine like caffein or dioxypurine
is addictive, and since there are more oxypurines than in
coffee, it is more addictive.

'If you miss fish or meat, take out a veggieburger and whiz
on it.'

X
WORMS. We know that pig flesh contains trichinella worms
wrapped in cysts so that they remain in many pork dishes.
Owen Parrett, MD wrote that even Rocky Mountain trout from the most
unpolluted streams
have worms.

XI HEPATITIS
The coprophagous (human and other waste eating) habits of shellfish are the number 2 (yes) cause of hepatitis.

XII
MOST DANGEROUS OCCUPATION[/b]

Commercial fishing causes more fatalities annually than
any other occupation, through sudden storm drownings,
through problems with pulleys, ropes, nets, sails,
through spiking and other injuries from fishes gasping
for their breath and fighting for their lives. Noncommercial
fishermen have died when lightning turned their metal poles
into lightning rods.

XIII
CHOKING

Choking on meat or fish is the 6th cause of accidental death in the
US. So common has it been to choke on fish bones that the Catholic
Church has a feastday dedicated to St. Blaize in which throats
are blessed. Fraternity house pranks in the cruel blood sport
of goldfish swallowing have resulted in deaths to humans
as well as the fish.

Perhaps no illness is more karmically linked to eating fish
than breathing difficulties. Fish most often suffocate.
Suffocation brings suffering to the fishes and to humans
who eat them, through lung cancer, asthma, mucus buildup
in the respiratory tract etc.

XIV ALLERGIES TO IODINE

A radio network caller, Oct 27,97: 'My mother never got to see the same military MD twice, so it was years before medical detectives realized that her
Saturday headaches were caused by her Friday fisheating with an
allergy to iodine.

XV CARCINOGENIC ADDITIVES

Many carcinogenic or lethal additives such as MSG are added
to fish flesh by some companies and restaurants. MSG
is used as a 'meat tenderizer' because it breaks down muscle
cells (as well as nerve cells of the brain.. causing Chinese restaurant syndrome.. of which headaches
are the least of the problems) .The FDA allows MSG and other
toxins in food under the label 'natural flavoring'.

XVI DEPRESSION

In reality, fish like birds and mammals secrete adrenalin
or epinephrine when terrorized, fighting for their lives,
fleeing the hook or the gun. Adrenalin is a longchained
protein enzyme, only some of whose links are destroyed by
cooking. Eating the biochemical agony of the fish or animal
causes depression to humans eating the fish cadavers and can stimulate
violence.

XVII NEUROTOXIC INSECTICIDES
end up in the waters of the world.
Some are organophosphates, carbamates and pyrethroids.

XVIII FEMALE HORMONES
end up as well in the waters of the world causing fish deformitiesand cancers which are transferred to fish eaters. These hormones are excreted as urine by trillions of enslaved farm animals and work their way into the streams, rivers and oceans of the world, causing breast, prostate, uterine, ovarian and other cancers.

XIX EVERY HEAVY METAL, EVERY TOXIC CHEMICAL, EVERY TOXIC
FERTILIZER EVERY POLLUTANT, EVERY OIL SPILL EVERY ROCKET FUEL DUMP
ends up in some way impacting the fish. and concentrating itself in their flesh

XX TYPHOID FEVER FROM SHELLFISH

The fishing industry dominates the press releases of many
health departments. Thus typhoid fever's relation to consumed
shellfish and meat has been muzzled.

XXI PSYCHIATRIC MEDICATIONS CORRELATED TO HOMICIDE
AND SUICIDE

Quote:
Drugs including antibiotics, antipsychotics, birth-control hormones, Viagra and Valium routinely turn up in wastewater all over the world because people flush them down their toilets. But medications have also ended up in Los Angeles County's water supplies because of the region's aggressive efforts to turn treated sewage into drinking water.

The makers of Prozac, Paxil, Haldol, and many other drugs
have been sued successfully for the lethal effects.. including
homicide and suicide caused by their drugs.

XXII ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE The above quote mentions
the antibiotics in the water. The animals have built up
resistance to them and pass it on through their urine.

XXIII WHAT'S IN MUNICIPAL WATER?
Antibiotics, female hormones, lethal 'antipsychotic' drugs
which trigger homicide and suicide, antiepilepsy drugs, ecoli or colon bacteria, fertilizers, insecticides, mercury, hundreds of other toxic metal combinations, arsenic, nuclear waste dumping radiation are some
of the thousands of contaminants in drinking water.. their source
is zillions of gallons of urine from humans, from factory farmed
animals, nuclear power plants, factory dumping, agribusiness runoff, tanneries, lumber
mills etc. Many of the above are not biodegradable and are concentrated in the flesh of
fish at rates of 100,1000 or 1 000 000 times the drinking water level, said Rachel
Carson in her pioneer book: The Silent Spring.) [/i]

XXIV POISONS IN FISH.. POISONS WHICH HAVE SENT ALLEGED MUDERERS TO JAIL.. ONLY THREE OF MANY LISTED

1. CYANIDE
Cyanide is one of tens of thousands of poisons accumulating
in the flesh of fishes. Perhaps someone could write a murder
mystery about a faithful husband accused of murdering
his wife because her body had high concentrations of
cyanide in it.

2. STRYCHNINE
Health departments, extermination companies use strychnine
in rodenticides. The strychnine washes into the water systems
and accumulates in fishes.

3. ARSENIC
Often mentioned 2nd to mercury in concentration in the waters.

XXV DEODORIZERS

'Two executives of St. Petersburg-based Sigma
International Inc., were sent to prison and fined $1 million for
dunking spoiled shrimp in a bleach solution to hide the smell.'
-Vietnam Bob-
Around the world many shrimpflesh mongers do likewise.

II ETHICS ENVIRONMENT

I FISHING CAUSES INTERNATIONAL CONFLICTS
The Russians have courageously detained Japanese fishing
boats. The Australians have worked against Japanese
fishermen as well. (Perhaps the Japanese will organize
a worldwide boycott of Australian kangaroo, cow and sheep flesh.) Japanese fishermen supported by their government
kill whales, knife dolphins, take far more than other countries
in their fishing operations. Other whale killers are supported by
the US (Makah tribesmen, naval propellers, sonar) , Norway,
and Iceland. Norwegians, Caadians, and S Africans
club seals.

II DEEP SEA FISHING IS THE WORLD'S MOST DANGEROUS
OCCUPATION
A.
Deaths from boats capsized, fishermen overboard drowning,
fishermen caught in nets, or sliced by creatures fighting
for their lives from catfish to sharks.

B. Slavery for Thai and other shrimp fishers

Eating shrimp is very bad for the shrimp, causes many food poisoning,
mercury and other diseases, and causes slavery for shrimp workers
in Thailand and elsewhere.

III
MARINE MAMMAL MURDER

Seals and whales are killed by Canadians Norwegians and Japanese
because they
compete for fish. Penguin babies can die because there
are no longer enough fish for them to eat.

Dolphins, turtles and other sea creatures are
caught in the nets.

Whales are caught in lobster lines.

Manatee and all forenamed creatures are caught in boat propellers.

Those who promote fisheating incur the karma not only of the
suffocated fish (problems of breath) but the karma of the seals,
whales,
dolphins, turtles, octopi and all other sea beings killed by the
fishing industry or individuals.

A Hindu ashram not in accord with the Bhagavad Gita's
dietary nonviolence
was inundated by the perhaps military machine generated tsunami.

In addition, the trillions of tons of plastic in the ocean
are causing the choking of dolphins, seals, pelicans,
albatross, and thousands of other species.

IV
COMMERCIAL CORRUPTION

There are trillions of gallons of fish oil slop on trawler and
processing floors.

Harvard whose corporate funded studies were a factor in Stanley
Prusiner's (prion discoverer) leaving for California is also promoting
the glut of fish on the market.

States like Maryland which subsidize fishing promotion
are violating the first amendment rights of Buddhists, Hindus,
vegetarians, vegans, Seventh Day Adventists, Jains, and
many other religions which teach not killing.
The sale of fish brings 54 million to the state of Maryland, whose
governor prevailed on 3 chains in the Washington area to
begin again to sell Chesapeake fish despite the pfiesteria disease
caused by untold trillions of gallons of pig factory farm
sewage being dumped into the Atlantic.
One factor of many in the disease of the fish might be the Calvert
Cliffs nuclear power plant, which raises the temperature of the water
in the area.

V
FISHES' SENTIENCE

Dr Donald Broom, science adviser to the British government, has said that the pain
system in fish is the same as for mammals and humans.

Any child who sees a fish flopping on the deck, or struggling for life on a hook,
or impaled in the eye by a flyfisher knows that fishes fill pain.

What's worse than a snakeoil salesman? A pawn of fishmongers.

VI VEGAN CAT FOOD

A vanguard of holistic veterinarians, and James A Peden,
author of VEGETARIAN CATS AND DOGS, which is in its third printing, are
working to help petowners transition their cats to nonharmful foods, ones
which do not cause urethra blockages, feline leukemia, kidney dysfunction, crippling arthritis, lung infections and breathing problems or
food poisoning. Andrew Knight DVM has written of a litany
of toxins in commercial pet food. Taurine, an enzyme thought
needed by cats, has been produced synthetically since 1930.

VII CONSCIOUSNESS AND KARMA

The more conscious the animal, the worse the effects from
eating that animal. Thus humans contract kuru when they
eat other humans. The eating of monkey meat in Zaire, Zambia
is a source of AIDS. Mammal eating causes many more heart attacks. The eating of birds causes leukemia, food poisoning
deaths, Mad Chicken Disease.

VIII
OXYMORONS: FRESH FISH AND OVERFISHING

With asbestos in Lake Michigan, pcb's in the livers of polar bears
in Alaska, oyster contamination in the Gulf from the runoff of
the Mississippi, lipophilic insecticides in Lake Erie, pfiesteria
in the Atlantic seaboard..arsenic, chromium and mercury, pcb's,
insecticides, fish killing old oil and every other toxin in the
oceans,
shellfish in the NE
eating unprocessed human waste, where is there fresh fish?
The UN FAO, Prince Philip, and government and private
coalitions around the world are working to reduce fishing
so as not to wipe out certain species.

poem by O. Anna Niemus
Added by Poetry Lover
Comment! | Vote! | Copy!

Stealth Draft?

To all men & women ages 18-25
DOD Directive 1404.10 is signed
Military Draft stealthily revived
Youth support of war redefined

ROTMS

Read the Directive below very carefully and decide for yourself.

******************************** ******************

Department of Defense
DIRECTIVE
NUMBER 1404.10
23 January 2009
USD(P&R)
SUBJECT: DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce
References: See Enclosure 1
1. PURPOSE. This Directive:
a. Reissues DoD Directive (DoDD) 1404.10 (Reference (a)) under a new title to establish the
policy through which an appropriately sized subset of the DoD civilian workforce is preidentified
to be organized, trained, and equipped in a manner that facilitates the use of their
capabilities for operational requirements. These requirements are typically away from the
normal work locations of DoD civilians, or in situations where other civilians may be evacuated
to assist military forces where the use of DoD civilians is appropriate. These employees shall be
collectively known as the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce. Members of the DoD
Civilian Expeditionary Workforce shall be organized, trained, cleared, equipped, and ready to
deploy in support of combat operations by the military; contingencies; emergency operations;
humanitarian missions; disaster relief; restoration of order; drug interdiction; and stability
operations of the Department of Defense in accordance with DoDD 3000.05 (Reference (b)) .
b. Updates policies and responsibilities for the designation of part of the DoD Civilian
Expeditionary Workforce using the existing category of Emergency-Essential (E-E) civilian
employee positions, and establishes policies and responsibilities for the designation of part of the
DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce using new categories of Non-Combat Essential (NCE)
positions and Capability-Based Volunteers (CBVs) employees and former DoD employees. All
four categories make up the newly designated DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.
c. Supersedes any conflicting portions of other DoD issuances. Such instances shall be
identified by the Heads of the DoD Components to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel
and Readiness (USD(P&R)) .
2. APPLICABILITY. This Directive applies to:
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
2
a. OSD, the Military Departments, the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and the Joint Staff, the Combatant Commands, the Office of the Inspector General of the
Department of Defense, the Defense Agencies, the DoD Field Activities, and all other
organizational entities within the Department of Defense (hereafter referred to collectively as the
“DoD Components”) .
b. All appropriated and non-appropriated fund positions and DoD civilian employees of the
DoD Components. Excludes dual status National Guard and Reserve Technicians and contractor
employees.
3. DEFINITIONS. See Glossary.
4. POLICY. It is DoD policy to:
a. Rely on a mix of capable military members and DoD civilian employees to meet DoD
global national security mission requirements. DoD civilian employees are an integral part of
the Total Force. They serve in a variety of positions, provide essential capabilities and, where
appropriate for civilians to do so, support mission requirements such as combat, contingencies,
emergency operations; humanitarian and civic assistance activities; disaster relief; restoration of
order; drug interdiction; and stability operations of the Department of Defense, herein
collectively referred to as “expeditionary requirements.”
b. Identify a subset of the DoD civilian workforce as the DoD Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce. These civilian employees are organized, ready, trained, cleared, and equipped in a
manner that enhances their availability to mobilize and respond urgently to expeditionary
requirements. As practicable,
(1) To support workforce stability and deployment predictability, the timeframes during
which the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce is susceptible to expeditionary assignments
will be designated in 6-month rotational periods. Tours will be determined through collaboration
of the combatant commanders, career field managers, functional community managers, and
civilian employees, as applicable. The portion of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce
that is within the 6-month window of deployment susceptibility shall maintain full preparedness
as trained, cleared, and ready.
(2) Individual deployment tours shall not exceed 2 years. Consecutive deployments
should generally not be approved without at least a 90-day period of reintegration between
deployments and assurance that medical clearance requirements are met.
c. Integrate DoD civilian workforce capabilities into DoD Total Force planning processes.
(1) Civilian manpower requirements shall be sourced and designated consistent with the
manpower policy and procedures in DoD Instruction (DoDI) 1100.22 (Reference (c)) .
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
3
(2) DoD civilian employees shall be included in the DoD Global Force Management
process as set forth in the Strategic Planning Guidance (Reference (d)) . Global Force
Management Board recommendations and decisions and Global Force Allocation Management
Plans shall reflect designation of DoD civilian employees as the preferred sourcing solution
when appropriate for non-warfighting Combatant Command request for forces and requests for
capabilities, and Joint Individual Augmentation requirements on Combatant Command Joint
Manning Documents for recurring and emergent mission requirements.
d. Designate and annually review the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce that will be
coded as:
(1) Emergency Essential (E-E) . A position-based designation to support the success of
combat operations or the availability of combat-essential systems in accordance with section
1580 of title 10, United States Code (U.S.C.) (Reference (e)) and will be designated as Key in
accordance with paragraph 4.d.(5) .
(2) Non-Combat Essential (NCE) . A position-based designation to support the
expeditionary requirements in other than combat or combat support situations and will be
designated as Key in accordance with paragraph 4.d.(5) .
(3) Capability-Based Volunteer (CBV) . An employee who may be asked to volunteer
for deployment, to remain behind after other civilians have evacuated, or to backfill other DoD
civilians who have deployed to meet expeditionary requirements in order to ensure that critical
expeditionary requirements that may fall outside or within the scope of an individual’s position
are fulfilled.
(4) Capability-Based Former Employee Volunteer Corps. A collective group of former
(including retired) DoD civilian employees who have agreed to be listed in a database as
individuals who may be interested in returning to Federal service as a time-limited employee to
serve expeditionary requirements or who can backfill for those serving other expeditionary
requirements. When these individuals are re-employed, they shall be deemed CBV employees.
(5) Key Employees. DoD civilian employees in positions designated as E-E and/or NCE
will be designated Key in accordance with DoDD 1200.7 (Reference (f)) .
e. Notify applicants and DoD civilian employees when positions are designated E-E and/or
NCE as part of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.
(1) DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce positions should be pre-identified whenever
practicable.
(a) Vacant E-E and NCE Positions. Applicants must sign the DD Form 2365, “DoD
Civilian Expeditionary Workforce Agreement – Position Based, ” as a condition of employment.
Job announcements and positions descriptions for such positions must contain a statement that
the position is designated as E-E or NCE, that it is part of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce, and that a signature of the form is a condition of employment.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
4
(b) Encumbered Positions. Management must give DoD civilian employees whose
positions are identified as E-E or NCE as much notice as possible (generally not less than 90
calendar days advance notice of the E-E or NCE designation) . The incumbents shall be asked to
accept the new designation of the position as an E-E and/or NCE position, and if he or she does
so, he or she will be required to sign the DD Form 2365 as a condition of continued employment.
If an incumbent employee is unable or unwilling to accept such requirements, then every effort
will be undertaken to reassign the employee to a different position (including a vacant position)
if reasonably practicable, consistent with the needs of the DoD mission and approval of
management.
(2) DoD civilian employees in E-E or NCE positions may be directed to accept
deployment requirements of the position. However, whenever possible, the DoD Civilian
Expeditionary Workforce will be asked to serve expeditionary requirements voluntarily.
Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilian employees, either voluntarily,
involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD mission.
(3) CBVs agree to list their capabilities and skills in a database established by this
Directive so that when an expeditionary requirement exists for a civilian employee with such
skills, the employee can be contacted and asked to volunteer for such an assignment. There is no
penalty for not agreeing to volunteer when asked to serve a specific expeditionary requirement.
To ensure that CBVs are aware of the voluntary nature of their potential service and the
readiness requirements, CBVs must sign a DD Form 2365-1, “DoD Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce Agreement – CBV, ” when they first agree to be listed in the database. CBVs will
receive training only after they sign this agreement.
(4) CBVs for the Defense Intelligence Components will be included in a classified
Intelligence Community-wide database. USD(I) will establish a policy and process for access to
the classified database to ensure that qualified DoD IC employees are considered for
expeditionary assignments.
f. Utilize the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce to meet expeditionary requirements
within their employing Component and across the Department of Defense as directed by an
authorized official (see Enclosure 2, paragraph 1.b.) whenever it is appropriate to use civilian
employees in support of the military to meet those expeditionary requirements.
g. Establish metrics to measure and assess on a regular basis DoD Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce readiness, to be known as the Expeditionary Workforce Deployment Index (DI) and
Readiness Index (RI) based on the following factors:
(1) Employee Capabilities. Ensure DoD civilian employees have the related
competencies, skills, abilities, medical, and psychological fitness to be successful in high
pressure and austere operational environments; ability to work as part of an integrated team
including military, contractor, Federal civilian, and foreign national personnel; a record of
successful job performance to deliver results; and the highest professional and ethical behavior to
maintain a deployment environment characterized by good order, discipline, and conduct.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
5
(2) Training. Train, develop, and prepare civilian employees who are part of the DoD
Civilian Expeditionary Workforce to meet expeditionary requirements and foreseeable risks they
are likely to face in the theater of operations in accordance with DoDD 1400.31 (Reference (g)) ,
DoDI 1400.32 (Reference (h)) , and DoDD 1322.18 (Reference (i)) . Training shall consist of:
(a) Initial orientation upon becoming part of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce, annual refresher training, pre-deployment (including theater-specific) training, as
well as on the job training, and post-deployment reintegration training, as appropriate and
practicable.
(b) Training on the use of any required specialized equipment needed for their
specific missions such as vehicles and communication systems.
(c) Counseling on their legal status under the Uniform Code of Military Justice
(Reference (j)) in accordance with Public Law 109-364 (2006) (Reference (k)) , the Military
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act under DoDI 5525.11 (Reference (l)) , Secretary of Defense
Memorandum (Reference (m)) , and implementing regulations.
(d) Training in obtaining medical treatment and the related validating and
administrative processing for those who have responsibilities for supporting wounded and
injured civilians.
(e) Elements from the National Security Professional (NSP) training course to be
selected based on relevance to DoD civilian expeditionary requirements and duties.
(f) Training for DoD civilian employees, supervisors, and managers on recognizing
stress-related conditions that may result from serving expeditionary requirements.
(3) Medical and Psychological Fitness. The Department of Defense takes seriously the
need to protect the health of deployed DoD civilian employees and to medically assess DoD
civilian employees who serve expeditionary requirements.
(a) All DoD civilian employees who encumber an E-E or NCE position are required
to have an annual health assessment to determine whether the employee is available for
worldwide deployment. DoD civilian employees designated as CBVs and former DoD
employees will undergo a health assessment to determine whether they can meet a specific
expeditionary requirement.
(b) Force health protection pre- and post-health assessments shall be conducted for
DoD civilian employees in accordance with DoDI 6490.03 (Reference (n)) . Health assessment
information shall be submitted to the Defense Medical Surveillance system.
(c) For DoD civilian employees covered by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as
amended (section 791 through 794-d of title 29, U.S.C. (Reference (o))) , an individualized
assessment must be conducted to determine if the individual can perform the essential functions
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
6
of a DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce position with or without reasonable
accommodations. For E-E or NCE positions, the ability to be deployed worldwide, including
austere locations, is an essential condition of those positions. For CBV, the ability of an
employee to perform the essential functions of the position in the relevant deployed environment
must be assessed before he or she can be deployed or asked to stay behind when other civilians
have evacuated.
(d) DoD civilian employees who become ill, contract diseases, or who are injured or
wounded while deployed in support of U.S. military forces engaged in hostilities (see Glossary,
“contingency operation”) are eligible for medical evacuation and health care treatment and
services in military treatment facilities (MTFs) at no cost to the civilian employee and at the
same level and scope provided to military personnel. The same system used to track active duty
patients through the Military Health System shall be used to track DoD civilian employees
injured in theater while forward deployed. Civilians will not be charged personal leave while
undergoing therapy and/or rehabilitation due to a combat, combat support, duty related or
non-duty related injury incurred during deployment after they return from deployment.
(e) Deployed DoD civilian employees who were treated in theater continue to be
eligible for treatment in an MTF or civilian medical facility for compensable illnesses, diseases,
wounds, or injuries under the Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Program
(DOL OWCP) (Reference (p)) upon their return at no cost to the civilian employee. DoD
civilian employees who deployed and are subsequently determined to have compensable
illnesses, diseases, wounds, or injuries under the DOL OWCP programs also are eligible for
treatment in an MTF or civilian sector medical facility at no cost to the civilian employee.
(4) Administrative Preparedness. The employing DoD Component shall provide the
employees of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce with a valid Official Passport,
Common Access Card, Geneva Conventions Identification Card, and required security
clearances, when appropriate. DoD civilian employees who are part of the DoD Civilian
Expeditionary Workforce are required to maintain:
(a) Current and valid administrative documents and clearances.
(b) Current Family Care Plans.
h. Establish the appropriate level of deployment strength for each functional community to
ensure an adequately sized DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce, considering E-E, NCE, and
CBV designations.
i. Support and recognize the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.
(1) When a DoD civilian employee who is part of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce is required to deploy away from his or her normal work location, he or she shall be
released and allowed to deploy in a timely fashion to meet an expeditionary requirement unless
there is a significant negative impact on the mission of his or her home unit. Those who are
reassigned from their normal position to serve expeditionary requirements will be granted the
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
7
right to return to the positions they held prior to their deployment or to a position of similar
grade, level, and responsibility within the same local organization, regardless of the length of
deployment. There shall be no retaliation because of an employee’s expression of interest in
serving an expeditionary requirement or because of such service. This includes threats or denial
of rights to return to pre-deployment positions, promotions, training opportunities, or other
career enhancing opportunities.
(2) DoD civilian employees shall be treated with high regard as an indication of the
Department’s respect for those who serve expeditionary requirements. Their service and
experience shall be valued, respected, and recognized as career enhancing.
(3) Families of deployed DoD civilian employees shall be supported and provided with
information on benefits and entitlements, and issues likely to be faced by the employee during
and upon return from a deployment.
(4) DoD civilian employees who meet the requirements are eligible for the Secretary of
Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) . Other civilian awards and
recognition may be appropriate in accordance with USD(P&R) Memorandum (Reference (q)) .
j. Track and account for DoD civilians, including their daily locations, who are deployed to
assigned positions or unclassified temporary requirements in accordance with References (h)
and (n) . A Request for Personnel Action is required to document all unclassified civilian
deployments.
5. RESPONSIBILITIES. See Enclosure 2.
6. INFORMATION REQUIREMENTS
a. The Heads of the DoD Components shall:
(1) Collect data on E-E, NCE, and CBV civilian employees. See Enclosure 3 for
reporting instructions, and DoDI 1444.2 (Reference (r)) .
(2) Submit data in automated format to the USD(P&R) , in accordance with
Reference (r) . The Report Control Symbol is DD-PER(qrm) 1458.
b. The Defense Intelligence Components are required to collect but not report data, as
prescribed in paragraph 6.a.(2) . This data shall be held at the agency, and information shall be
made available on request to the USD(P&R) . Information collection shall be accomplished in
accordance with DoDI 8910.01 (Reference (s)) .
7. RELEASABILITY. UNLIMITED. This Directive is approved for public release and is
available on the Internet from DoD Issuances Web Site at http: //www.dtic.mil/whs/directives.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
8
8. EFFECTIVE DATE. This Directive is effective immediately.
Enclosures
1. References
2. Responsibilities
3. Automation Instructions and Coding Description
Glossary
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
9 ENCLOSURE 1
ENCLOSURE 1
REFERENCES
(a) DoD Directive 1404.10, “Emergency-Essential (E-E) DoD U.S. Citizen Civilian
Employees, ” April 10,1992 (hereby canceled)
(b) DoD Directive 3000.05, “Military Support for Stability, Security, Transition, and
Reconstruction (SSTR) Operations, ” November 28,2005
(c) DoD Instruction 1100.22, “Guidance for Determining Workforce Mix, ” September 7,2006
(d) Strategic Planning Guidance (SPG) FY 2006-2011, March 1,2004
(e) Sections 101(a) (4) ,101(a) (13) ,688,1580,12301(a) ,12302,12304, and 12406, and
Chapter 15 of title 10, United States Code
(f) DoD Directive 1200.7, “Screening the Ready Reserve, ” November 18,1999
(g) DoD Directive 1400.31, “DoD Civilian Work Force Contingency and Emergency
Planning and Execution, ” April 28,1995
(h) DoD Instruction 1400.32, “DoD Civilian Work Force Contingency and Emergency
Planning Guidelines and Procedures, ” April 24,1995
(i) DoD Directive 1322.18, “Military Training, ” January 13,2009
(j) Sections 801 through 946 of title 10, United States Code (Uniform Code of Military
Justice)
(k) Public Law 109-364, “John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year
2007, ” October 17,2006
(l) DoD Instruction 5525.11, “Criminal Jurisdiction Over Civilians Employed By or
Accompanying the Armed Forces Outside the United States, Certain Service Members, and
Former Service Members, ” March 3,2005
(m) Secretary of Defense Memorandum, “UCMJ Jurisdiction Over DoD Civilian Employees,
DoD Contractor Personnel, and Other Persons Serving With or Accompanying the Armed
Forces Overseas during Declared War and in Contingency Operations, ” March 10,2008
(n) DoD Instruction 6490.03, “Deployment Health, ” August 11,2006
(o) Sections 791 through 794d of title 29, United States Code (“The Rehabilitation Act of
1973, as amended”)
(p) “Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Program (DOL OWCP) , ”
Sections 8101 through 8173 of title 5, United States Code
(q) Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Memorandum, “Secretary of
Defense Medal for the Global War on Terrorism, ” August 9,2007, as amended by Under
Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Memorandum, “Secretary of Defense
Medal for the Global War on Terrorism-Change 1, ” April 7,2008
(r) DoD Instruction 1444.2, “Consolidation of Automated Civilian Personnel Records, ”
September 16,1987
(s) DoD Instruction 8910.01, “Information Collection and Reporting, ” March 6,2007
(t) DoD Directive 5400.11, “DoD Privacy Program, ” May 8,2007
(u) DoD 5400.11-R, “Department of Defense Privacy Program, ” May 14,2007
(v) DoD 6025.18-R, “DoD Health Information Privacy Regulation, ” January 24,2003
(w) DoD Directive 5124.02, “Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
(USD(P&R)) , ” June 23,2008
(x) Section 2105 of title 5, United States Code
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
10 ENCLOSURE 2
ENCLOSURE 2
RESPONSIBILITIES
1. USD(P&R) . The USD(P&R) shall:
a. Manage and oversee implementation of this Directive; develop policy and implement
procedural guidance for DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce designation and utilization.
b. Execute the delegated authority from the Secretary of Defense for the mandatory use of
DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce positions designated as E-E and NCE to meet validated
DoD mission requirements outside a designated DoD civilian employee’s employing DoD
Component through the Secretary of Defense Operations Book (SDOB) process.
c. Authorize the voluntary use of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce to meet
validated DoD mission requirements outside a designated DoD civilian employee’s employing
DoD Component. Normally, this will be done through the SDOB process.
d. Ensure that the requirement to use E-E and NCE Civilian Expeditionary Workforce
positions and DoD civilian employee CBVs to meet expeditionary requirements outside a DoD
civilian employee’s employing Component is validated with the employing DoD Component, the
Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combatant Commands, and the Office of
the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Civilian Personnel Policy) (DUSD(CPP)) through the
SDOB or other process.
e. Ensure that the collection, use, and release of personally identifiable information (PII)
about individuals participating in the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce complies with DoDD
5400.11 (Reference (t)) and DoD 5400.11-R (Reference (u)) .
f. Ensure that the collection, use, and disclosure of protected health information (PHI) about
individuals participating in the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce complies with DoD 6025.18-R
(Reference (v)) .
g. Develop guidance and standards to meet the training requirements under this Directive for
the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce and their families, supervisors, military and DoD
civilian personnel, and human resources personnel.
2. DEPUTY UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR READINESS (DUSD(R)) . The
DUSD(R) , under the authority, direction, and control of the USD(P&R) , shall:
a. Ensure that deployment orders recommended for inclusion in the SDOB reflect DoD
civilian employees as a sourcing solution consistent with mission requirements.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
11 ENCLOSURE 2
b. Include the DUSD(CPP) in the USD(P&R) SDOB review process and quarterly Global
Force Management Board deliberations with the Secretary of Defense to ensure the appropriate
utilization of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce in meeting expeditionary requirements.
3. DUSD(CPP) . The DUSD(CPP) , under the authority, direction, and control of the
USD(P&R) , shall:
a. Serve as a member of the Global Force Management Board and Joint Individual
Augmentation Sourcing Board to ensure the maximum utilization of the DoD civilian workforce
for DoD expeditionary requirements.
b. Serve as a member of the U.S. Joint Forces Command and other Joint Staff working
groups to provide advice and maximize utilization of DoD civilian workforce in operational
planning and for service in expeditionary operations.
c. Ensure Combatant Command civilian human resources advisors are appointed, trained,
and prepared to competently advise Combatant Commanders on the maximum utilization of
DoD civilians in operational planning and for service in expeditionary operations.
d. Maintain the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce designations in the Defense Civilian
Human Resources Database and maintain a database of current DoD Civilian Employees who
volunteer to be CBVs. Ensure the data integrity and reliability of these databases so that they
may be used to identify expeditionary sourcing capabilities and functional community
deployment strength.
e. Direct the centralized civilian sourcing and management of the DoD Civilian
Expeditionary Workforce, including DoD civilian employees deployed in support of
expeditionary requirements, to:
(1) Serve as the resource to the Joint Staff (J-3 and J-1) and the U.S. Joint Forces
Command to identify sourcing solutions from within the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce
in coordination with DoD Component representatives, including Functional Community
Managers, during deliberations for force or individual capability requests on Joint Manning
Documents, rotational forces requests, and emergent requests for forces to support expeditionary
operations.
(2) Establish and monitor the Expeditionary Workforce Deployment Index (DI) and
Readiness Index (RI) and recommend mitigating actions to ensure the readiness of the DoD
Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.
(3) Develop and/or identify appropriate training to meet the RI requirements and other
training requirements for families of deployed civilians, supervisors, managers, and employees
under this Directive for the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
12 ENCLOSURE 2
(4) Serve as a principal resource for DoD Components to market and recruit for
expeditionary opportunities, and to assist DoD civilians during preparation for, during, and
following expeditionary service.
(5) Maintain the Capability-Based Former Employee Volunteer Corps database and
ensure the readiness of the Capability-Based Former Employee Volunteer Corps. Former DoD
civilian employees (including retirees) who agree to be part of the Capability-Based Former
Employee Corps will be tracked through the Defense Manpower Data Center.
4. UNDER SECRETARY OF DEFENSE (COMPTROLLER) (USD(C)) /CHIEF FINANCIAL
OFFICER (CFO) , DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE (USD(C) /DoD CFO) . The USD(C) /DoD
CFO shall:
a. Establish DoD policy and guidance regarding funding for the support and utilization of the
DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.
b. Ensure each DoD Component establishes policies and procedures so all organizations
within the Component have access to adequate resources to support the additional pay,
allowances, medical requirements, and travel of civilians deploying as part of the DoD Civilian
Expeditionary Workforce.
c. Work with Components to ensure that funds are realigned appropriately for civilian
expeditionary operations.
d. Work with Components to ensure civilian personnel costs are collected and reported as
part of contingency operations.
5. HEADS OF THE DoD COMPONENTS. The Heads of the DoD Components shall:
a. Implement the policies in this Directive.
b. Maintain a subset of their civilian employees (per DoDD 5124.02 (Reference (w))) that is
organized, trained, and equipped in a manner that facilitates the use of their capabilities for
operational requirements away from their normal work locations, or in situations where other
civilians may be evacuated, to be known as the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce.
c. Identify and designate positions as E-E, NCE, and DoD civilian employee volunteers as
CBVs. Ensure employees are provided the opportunity to identify their capabilities that may or
may not be related to their current position to support expeditionary requirements.
d. Plan, program, and budget for Civilian Expeditionary Workforce Requirements.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
13 ENCLOSURE 2
e. Ensure there is an adequate number of trained, cleared, and ready DoD civilian employees
to serve in the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce. Maintain and monitor the Deployment
Index and Readiness Index for their respective DoD Component.
f. Authorize members of the Civilian Expeditionary Workforce to serve validated mission
requirements of the DoD Component.
g. Review all civilian positions in their respective Component at least annually and,
whenever recruitment is initiated, determine the need or continuing need to designate a position
as E-E and NCE.
(1) Alternates should be identified for all positions, vacant or filled, to perform duties of
vacant E-E and NCE positions, and as appropriate, those encumbered E-E and NCE positions in
which the incumbents are unable to perform all of the required duties.
(2) Limit, to the degree practicable, situations where DoD civilian employees must be
directed to perform in E-E and NCE positions on an involuntary or unexpected basis.
h. Ensure personnel of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce within their respective
Component are trained, cleared, and ready to meet relevant expeditionary requirements.
i. Provide specified training as outlined in References (g) , (h) , and (i) and this Directive for
the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce, families of deployed civilians, supervisors,
managers, and employees within their respective DoD Components.
j. Fully support deployed DoD civilian employees and their families prior to deployment,
during deployment, and following deployment assignments. Ensure deployed civilians are
informed of their Human Resource point of contact and have a home station sponsor to assist
them and their families prior to and during deployments.
k. Ensure all force health protection measures in Reference (n) are applied to DoD civilian
employees from their respective Component serving expeditionary requirements. Establish a
system of accountability or mechanism for oversight of the pre- and post-deployment health
assessment requirements.
l. Identify Civilian Human Resource offices and/or personnel with expertise for processing
DoD civilian employees from their respective Component for civilian expeditionary workforce
requirements.
m. Identify and maintain cognizance of the issues and shortfalls expressed by DoD civilian
employees from their respective Component assigned to expeditionary requirements and
undertake remedial actions. Take corrective actions necessary to ensure that the elements of the
DoD Civilian Expeditionary workforce within their respective Components are trained, cleared,
and ready to meet expeditionary requirements.
n. Ensure all appropriate collective bargaining obligations are observed.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
14 ENCLOSURE 2
o. Once authorized by the Secretary of Defense, facilitate matching Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce E-E and NCE members to support DoD expeditionary requirements.
p. At least annually, review the CBV database to ensure it accurately documents the DoD
civilian employee volunteers from their respective Component.
6. CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff shall:
a. Include the DUSD(CPP) in all phases of the Global Force Management process, as
appropriate, to ensure DoD civilians are identified as a sourcing solution, consistent with mission
requirements.
b. Update all Joint Staff relevant publications on the Global Force Management processes to
ensure a Total Force planning effort and that DoD civilian employees are included as a source of
capabilities in the planning and sourcing requirements.
c. Include the DUSD(CPP) on the Joint Manning Validation Boards and in the SDOB
process to ensure that DoD civilian human resources perspectives are considered.
7. COMMANDERS OF THE COMBATANT COMMANDS. The Commanders of the
Combatant Commands, through the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shall:
a. Establish and communicate DoD civilian expeditionary requirements across the spectrum
of military operations to the DoD Components.
b. Maintain expert civilian human resources and manpower advisors on their staffs for the
purpose of supporting the development of civilian requirements within operational theater plans
and manning documents.
c. Include the Civilian Human Resources Advisor in the Global Force Manning Process and
other planning processes to ensure DoD civilian employees are appropriately included in
sourcing expeditionary requirements.
d. Expeditiously issue theater admission requirements for civilians.
e. Include summaries of civilian work force status in their respective situation reports.
f. Ensure all operational plans, joint manning documents, and individual augmentee
requirements incorporate support by DoD civilian employees to the maximum extent, consistent
with guidance provided by the Combatant Commander Human Resources Advisor.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
15 ENCLOSURE 2
8. COMMANDER, U.S. JOINT FORCES COMMAND (USJFCOM) . The Commander,
USJFCOM, in coordination with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shall:
a. Ensure, as the Joint Force Provider for the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce, that
DoD civilian employees are identified as a sourcing solution where and when appropriate
consistent with mission requirements.
b. Include the DoD Readiness Unit in all sourcing solution deliberations with Component
representatives.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
16 ENCLOSURE 3
ENCLOSURE 3
AUTOMATION INSTRUCTIONS AND CODING DESCRIPTION
1. Data on E-E, NCE, and CBV employees is reportable as part of the existing requirement for
consolidation of automated civilian personnel records (Reference (r)) .
2. The record field used for collection of this data shall be called “Civilian Expeditionary
Workforce agreement flag.”
3. Overseas Civilian Expeditionary Workforce agreement flag shall be data element number 55
and shall be submitted in position 159 of the automated tape submission sent to the DMDC
quarterly, in accordance with Reference (r) .
4. Data shall be submitted in master and transaction automated files each quarter.
5. Updated overseas Civilian Expeditionary Workforce agreement flag data shall remain
associated with all active individual employee records.
6. Coding description: Reference (r) . DD Forms 2365,2365-1, and 2365-2 will be provided in
the DoDI that will implement this Directive.
TITLE: Civilian Expeditionary Workforce Agreement Flag
Data element number 55 Civilian Expeditionary Workforce agreement flag
Submission position 159 (a one-position numeric field)
CODING DESCRIPTION
1 The employee is in an E-E or NCE position and has signed the position
agreement (DD Form 2365) to remain overseas or to deploy from their
permanent duty station to support combat operations or the availability of
combat-essential systems.
2 The employee is in an E-E or NCE position and has not signed the position
agreement (DD Form 2365) .
3 The employee is assigned as Alternate E-E or NCE and has signed the
position agreement (DD Form 2365) .
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
17 ENCLOSURE 3
CODING DESCRIPTION
4 The employee is assigned as Alternate E-E or NCE and has not signed the
position agreement (DD Form 2365) .
6 The employee, a Capability-Based Volunteer (CBV) , agrees to list his or her
capabilities in a database when there is an expeditionary requirement that may
fall outside or within the scope of assigned positions, or positions for which
they might qualify. They can be contacted and asked to volunteer; DD Form
2365-1 agreement signed.
7 The employee is a capability-based former employee volunteer and has
agreed to be listed in a database as an individual who may be interested in
returning to Federal service as a time-limited employee to serve expeditionary
requirements or who can backfill for those serving other expeditionary
requirements, and has signed DD Form 2365-2.
0 The employee does not occupy an E-E position, nor is the employee a
designated alternate to perform the duties of an E-E position.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
18 GLOSSARY
GLOSSARY
DEFINITIONS
These terms and their definitions are for the purpose of this Directive.
Capability-Based Former Volunteer Corps. Former DoD civilian employees with career status
and reappointment eligibility, or retired DoD civilian employees with eligibility to be appointed
as a reemployed annuitant, who have expressed an interest in being considered for reemployment
on a temporary basis to either respond to an expeditionary requirement or a backfill job
requirement.
capability-based volunteer (CBV) . An employee who may be asked to volunteer for
deployment, to remain behind after other civilians have evacuated, or to backfill other DoD
civilians who have deployed to meet expeditionary requirements in order to ensure that critical
expeditionary requirements that may fall outside or within the scope of an individual’s position
are fulfilled.
contingency operation. A military operation that (a) is designated by the Secretary of Defense as
an operation in which members of the armed forces are or may become involved in military
actions, operations, or hostilities against an enemy of the United States or against an opposing
military force; or (b) results in the call or order to, or retention on, active duty of members of the
uniformed services under section 688,12301(a) ,12302,12304,12406, or chapter 15 of
Reference (e) , or any other provision of law during a war or during a national emergency
declared by the President or Congress.
continuity of operations. The degree or state of being continuous in the conduct of functions,
tasks, or duties necessary to accomplish a military action or mission in carrying out the national
military strategy. It includes the functions and duties of the commander, as well as the
supporting functions and duties performed by the staff and others acting under the authority of
the commander.
deployment. Either temporary reassignment or the requirement to stay in place to support
contingency operations.
deployment index. The percentage of available DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce
positions and DoD civilian employee CBVs within designated career groups as determined by
validated requirements from Combatant Commands and/or other authorities directing DoD
missions and informed by the Functional Community Managers.
direct support. Services provided to participating military activities or armed forces in a military
operation awarded the GWOT Expeditionary Medal or in other similar operations for which a
separate military campaign medal was awarded to military personnel only if the employee
actually enters the designated area of eligibility.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
19 GLOSSARY
DoD civilian employee. An individual meeting the definition of “employee” under section 2105
of title 5, U.S.C., (Reference (x)) as well as employees of DoD Non-Appropriated Fund
Instrumentalities (NAFIs) paid for from Non-Appropriated Funds (NAFs) . This includes DoD
civilian employees filling full-time, part-time, intermittent, or on-call positions. Excludes dual
status National Guard and Reserve Technicians and contractor employees.
DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce. A subset of the DoD civilian workforce that is to be
organized, trained, cleared, and ready in a manner that facilitates the use of their capabilities
either in a temporary reassignment and/or duty status or to stay in place overseas to support the
DoD mission.
DoD Civilian Retired Corps. Retired DoD civilian employees with eligibility to be appointed as
a reemployed annuitant, who have expressed an interest in being considered for reemployment
on a temporary basis to either respond to an expeditionary requirement or a backfill job
requirement.
Emergency-Essential (E-E) . A position-based designation to support the success of combat
operations or the availability of combat-essential systems in accordance with section 1580 of
Reference (e) .
expeditionary. DoD civilians required either to remain at their assigned station after other
civilians have evacuated or to deploy away from their assigned station to fulfill the requirements
resulting from their E-E, NCE, or CBV mission requirements.
Global War on Terror (GWOT) . The type of operational activity that the President or the
Secretary of Defense approve to prevent or respond to life-threatening acts that are a violation of
the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and appear to be intended to intimidate or
coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion;
or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.
GWOT Medal. Medal awarded to DoD civilian employees, who, on or after September 11,
2001, to a date to be determined by an authorized official, participate abroad in a GWOT
operation in a location approved for award of the military GWOT Expeditionary Medal or
similar operation for which a separate military GWOT campaign medal was awarded. DoD
civilian employees must be engaged in direct support for 30 consecutive days in an area of
eligibility in a military operation (or the full period when the operation is of less than 30 days
duration) , for 60 non-consecutive days in an area of eligibility provided this support involves the
employee entering the area of eligibility, or, regardless of time, be killed or medically evacuated
from the area of eligibility while providing direct support to the operation. Eligibility criteria for
the GWOT medal are aligned as closely as practicable with the GWOT Expeditionary Medal
criteria awarded to active duty military personnel or other similar military medals awarded for
GWOT-specific campaigns. Under no circumstances are personnel in the United States eligible
for the medal.
Non-Combat Essential (NCE) . A position-based designation to support the expeditionary
requirements in other than combat or combat support situations.
DoDD 1404.10,23 January 2009
20 GLOSSARY
Readiness Index (RI) . The percentage of the DoD Civilian Expeditionary Workforce who have
met the applicable medical, dental, and physical; performance and conduct; initial, annual, and
pre-deployment training; clearance; administrative; and competency requirements.
Secretary of Defense Operations Book (SDOB) . Book prepared by the Joint Staff that briefs the
Secretary of Defense via an established process to obtain approval on proposed orders
authorizing the execution of military operations, directing the attachment of forces, authorizing
supplemental rules of engagement that require Secretary of Defense approval, or modifying
decisions in previously approved orders.
stability operations. An overarching term encompassing various military missions, tasks, and
activities conducted outside the United States in coordination with other instruments of national
power to maintain or reestablish a safe and secure environment, provide essential governmental
services, emergency infrastructure reconstruction, and humanitarian relief.
trained, cleared, and ready. A status of civilian employees who have met all prescribed readiness
requirements. These include, but are not limited to, training, administrative, medical, financial,
and security clearance requirements.
Total Force. The organizations, units, and individuals that comprise the DoD resources for
implementing the National Security Strategy. It includes DoD Active and Reserve Component
military personnel, military retired members, and DoD civilian personnel (including
non-appropriated fund employees) .
U.S. Armed Forces. Defined in section 101(a) (4) of Reference (e) , except that it excludes the
United States Coast Guard for the purpose of this Directive (unless it is operating as a service in
the Navy) .

poem by Ray Lucero
Added by Poetry Lover
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Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau, Saviour of Society

Epigraph

Υδραν φονεύσας, μυρίων τ᾽ ἄλλων πόνων
διῆλθον ἀγέλας . . .
τὸ λοίσθιον δὲ τόνδ᾽ ἔτλην τάλας πόνον,
. . . δῶμα θριγκῶσαι κακοῖς.

I slew the Hydra, and from labour pass'd
To labour — tribes of labours! Till, at last,
Attempting one more labour, in a trice,
Alack, with ills I crowned the edifice.

You have seen better days, dear? So have I —
And worse too, for they brought no such bud-mouth
As yours to lisp "You wish you knew me!" Well,
Wise men, 't is said, have sometimes wished the same,
And wished and had their trouble for their pains.
Suppose my Œdipus should lurk at last
Under a pork-pie hat and crinoline,
And, latish, pounce on Sphynx in Leicester Square?
Or likelier, what if Sphynx in wise old age,
Grown sick of snapping foolish people's heads,
And jealous for her riddle's proper rede, —
Jealous that the good trick which served the turn
Have justice rendered it, nor class one day
With friend Home's stilts and tongs and medium-ware,—
What if the once redoubted Sphynx, I say,
(Because night draws on, and the sands increase,
And desert-whispers grow a prophecy)
Tell all to Corinth of her own accord.
Bright Corinth, not dull Thebes, for Lais' sake,
Who finds me hardly grey, and likes my nose,
And thinks a man of sixty at the prime?
Good! It shall be! Revealment of myself!
But listen, for we must co-operate;
I don't drink tea: permit me the cigar!
First, how to make the matter plain, of course —
What was the law by which I lived. Let 's see:
Ay, we must take one instant of my life
Spent sitting by your side in this neat room:
Watch well the way I use it, and don't laugh!
Here's paper on the table, pen and ink:
Give me the soiled bit — not the pretty rose!
See! having sat an hour, I'm rested now,
Therefore want work: and spy no better work
For eye and hand and mind that guides them both,
During this instant, than to draw my pen
From blot One — thus — up, up to blot Two — thus —
Which I at last reach, thus, and here's my line
Five inches long and tolerably straight:
Better to draw than leave undrawn, I think.
Fitter to do than let alone, I hold,
Though better, fitter, by but one degree.
Therefore it was that, rather than sit still
Simply, my right-hand drew it while my left
Pulled smooth and pinched the moustache to a point.

Now I permit your plump lips to unpurse:
So far, one possibly may understand
"Without recourse to witchcraft!" True, my dear.
Thus folks begin with Euclid, — finish, how?
Trying to square the circle! — at any rate,
Solving abstruser problems than this first
"How find the nearest way 'twixt point and point."
Deal but with moral mathematics so —
Master one merest moment's work of mine,
Even this practising with pen and ink, —
Demonstrate why I rather plied the quill
Than left the space a blank, — you gain a fact,
And God knows what a fact's worth! So proceed
By inference from just this moral fact
— I don't say, to that plaguy quadrature
"What the whole man meant, whom you wish you knew,"
But, what meant certain things he did of old,
Which puzzled Europe, — why, you'll find them plain,
This way, not otherwise: I guarantee.
Understand one, you comprehend the rest.
Rays from all round converge to any point:
Study the point then ere you track the rays!
The size o' the circle's nothing; subdivide
Earth, and earth's smallest grain of mustard-seed,
You count as many parts, small matching large,
If you can use the mind's eye: otherwise,
Material optics, being gross at best,
Prefer the large and leave our mind the small —
And pray how many folks have minds can see?
Certainly you — and somebody in Thrace
Whose name escapes me at the moment. You —
Lend me your mind then! Analyse with me
This instance of the line 'twixt blot and blot
I rather chose to draw than leave a blank.
Things else being equal. You are taught thereby
That 't is my nature, when I am at ease,
Rather than idle out my life too long,
To want to do a thing — to put a thought,
Whether a great thought or a little one,
Into an act, as nearly as may be.
Make what is absolutely new — I can't,
Mar what is made already well enough —
I won't: but turn to best account the thing
That 's half-made — that I can. Two blots, you saw
I knew how to extend into a line
Symmetric on the sheet they blurred before —
Such little act sufficed, this time, such thought.

Now, we'll extend rays, widen out the verge,
Describe a larger circle; leave this first
Clod of an instance we began with, rise
To the complete world many clods effect.
Only continue patient while I throw,
Delver-like, spadeful after spadeful up,
Just as truths come, the subsoil of me, mould
Whence spring my moods: your object, — just to find,
Alike from handlift and from barrow-load, 100
What salts and silts may constitute the earth —
If it be proper stuff to blow man glass,
Or bake him pottery, bear him oaks or wheat —
What's born of me, in brief; which found, all's known.
If it were genius did the digging-job,
Logic would speedily sift its product smooth
And leave the crude truths bare for poetry;
But I'm no poet, and am stiff i' the back.
What one spread fails to bring, another may.
In goes the shovel and out comes scoop — as here!

I live to please myself. I recognize
Power passing mine, immeasurable, God —
Above me, whom He made, as heaven beyond
Earth — to use figures which assist our sense.
I know that He is there as I am here.
By the same proof, which seems no proof at all,
It so exceeds familiar forms of proof.
Why "there," not "here"? Because, when I say "there,"
I treat the feeling with distincter shape
That space exists between us: I, — not He, —
Live, think, do human work here — no machine.
His will moves, but a being by myself,
His, and not He who made me for a work,
Watches my working, judges its effect,
But does not interpose. He did so once,
And probably will again some time — not now,
Life being the minute of mankind, not God's,
In a certain sense, like time before and time
After man's earthly life, so far as man
Needs apprehend the matter. Am I clear?
Suppose I bid a courier take to-night
(. . . Once for all, let me talk as if I smoked
Yet in the Residenz, a personage:
I must still represent the thing I was,
Galvanically make dead muscle play.
Or how shall I illustrate muscle's use?)
I could then, last July, bid courier take
Message for me, post-haste, a thousand miles.
I bid him, since I have the right to bid,
And, my part done so far, his part begins;
He starts with due equipment, will and power,
Means he may use, misuse, not use at all.
At his discretion, at his peril too.
I leave him to himself: but, journey done,
I count the minutes, call for the result
In quickness and the courier quality.
Weigh its worth, and then punish or reward
According to proved service; not before.
Meantime, he sleeps through noontide, rides till dawn.
Sticks to the straight road, tries the crooked path,
Measures and manages resource, trusts, doubts
Advisers by the wayside, does his best
At his discretion, lags or launches forth,
(He knows and I know) at his peril too.
You see? Exactly thus men stand to God:
I with my courier, God with me. Just so
I have His bidding to perform; but mind
And body, all of me, though made and meant
For that sole service, must consult, concert
With my own self and nobody beside,
How to effect the same: God helps not else.
'T is I who, with my stock of craft and strength,
Choose the directer cut across the hedge,
Or keep the foot-track that respects a crop.
Lie down and rest, rise up and run, — live spare,
Feed free, — all that 's my business: but, arrive,
Deliver message, bring the answer back,
And make my bow, I must: then God will speak,
Praise me or haply blame as service proves.
To other men, to each and everyone,
Another law! what likelier? God, perchance,
Grants each new man, by some as new a mode.
Intercommunication with Himself,
Wreaking on finiteness infinitude;
By such a series of effects, gives each
Last His own imprint: old yet ever new
The process: 't is the way of Deity.
How it succeeds, He knows: I only know
That varied modes of creatureship abound,
Implying just as varied intercourse
For each with the creator of them all.
Each has his own mind and no other's mode.
What mode may yours be? I shall sympathize!
No doubt, you, good young lady that you are,
Despite a natural naughtiness or two,
Turn eyes up like a Pradier Magdalen
And see an outspread providential hand
Above the owl's-wing aigrette — guard and guide —
Visibly o'er your path, about your bed,
Through all your practisings with London-town.
It points, you go; it stays fixed, and you stop;
You quicken its procedure by a word
Spoken, a thought in silence, prayer and praise.
Well, I believe that such a hand may stoop,
And such appeals to it may stave off harm,
Pacify the grim guardian of this Square,
And stand you in good stead on quarter-day:
Quite possible in your case; not in mine.
"Ah, but I choose to make the difference,
Find the emancipation?" No, I hope!
If I deceive myself, take noon for night,
Please to become determinedly blind
To the true ordinance of human life.
Through mere presumption — that is my affair.
And truly a grave one; but as grave I think
Your affair, yours, the specially observed, —
Each favoured person that perceives his path
Pointed him, inch by inch, and looks above
For guidance, through the mazes of this world,
In what we call its meanest life-career
— Not how to manage Europe properly.
But how keep open shop, and yet pay rent.
Rear household, and make both ends meet, the same.
I say, such man is no less tasked than I
To duly take the path appointed him
By whatsoever sign he recognize.
Our insincerity on both our heads!
No matter what the object of a life,
Small work or large, — the making thrive a shop,
Or seeing that an empire take no harm, —
There are known fruits to judge obedience by.
You've read a ton's weight, now, of newspaper —
Lives of me, gabble about the kind of prince —
You know my work i' the rough; I ask you, then.
Do I appear subordinated less
To hand-impulsion, one prime push for all.
Than little lives of men, the multitude
That cried out, every quarter of an hour,
For fresh instructions, did or did not work,
And praised in the odd minutes?

Eh, my dear?
Such is the reason why I acquiesced
In doing what seemed best for me to do,
So as to please myself on the great scale,
Having regard to immortality
No less than life — did that which head and heart
Prescribed my hand, in measure with its means
Of doing — used my special stock of power —
Not from the aforesaid head and heart alone,
But every sort of helpful circumstance.
Some problematic and some nondescript:
All regulated by the single care
I' the last resort — that I made thoroughly serve
The when and how, toiled where was need, reposed
As resolutely to the proper point.
Braved sorrow, courted joy, to just one end:
Namely, that just the creature I was bound
To be, I should become, nor thwart at all
God's purpose in creation. I conceive
No other duty possible to man, —
Highest mind, lowest mind, — no other law
By which to judge life failure or success:
What folks call being saved or cast away.

Such was my rule of life; I worked my best
Subject to ultimate judgment, God's not man's.
Well then, this settled, — take your tea, I beg.
And meditate the fact, 'twixt sip and sip, —
This settled — why I pleased myself, you saw,
By turning blot and blot into a line,
O' the little scale, — we'll try now (as your tongue
Tries the concluding sugar-drop) what's meant
To please me most o' the great scale. Why, just now,
With nothing else to do within my reach.
Did I prefer making two blots one line
To making yet another separate
Third blot, and leaving those I found unlinked?
It meant, I like to use the thing I find.
Rather than strive at unfound novelty:
I make the best of the old, nor try for new.
Such will to act, such choice of action's way.
Constitute — when at work on the great scale,
Driven to their farthest natural consequence
By all the help from all the means — my own
Particular faculty of serving God,
Instinct for putting power to exercise
Upon some wish and want o' the time, I prove
Possible to mankind as best I may.
This constitutes my mission, — grant the phrase, —
Namely, to rule men — men within my reach,
To order, influence and dispose them so
As render solid and stabilify
Mankind in particles, the light and loose,
For their good and my pleasure in the act.
Such good accomplished proves twice good to me —
Good for its own sake, as the just and right.
And, in the effecting also, good again
To me its agent, tasked as suits my taste.

Is this much easy to be understood
At first glance? Now begin the steady gaze!

My rank — (if I must tell you simple truth —
Telling were else not worth the whiff o' the weed
I lose for the tale's sake) — dear, my rank i' the world
Is hard to know and name precisely: err
I may, but scarcely over-estimate
My style and title. Do I class with men
Most useful to their fellows? Possibly, —
Therefore, in some sort, best; but, greatest mind
And rarest nature? Evidently no.
A conservator, call me, if you please,
Not a creator nor destroyer: one
Who keeps the world safe. I profess to trace
The broken circle of society,
Dim actual order, I can redescribe
Not only where some segment silver-true
Stays clear, but where the breaks of black commence
Baffling you all who want the eye to probe —
As I make out yon problematic thin
White paring of your thumb-nail outside there,
Above the plaster-monarch on his steed —
See an inch, name an ell, and prophecy
O' the rest that ought to follow, the round moon
Now hiding in the night of things: that round,
I labour to demonstrate moon enough
For the month's purpose, — that society,
Render efficient for the age's need:
Preserving you in either case the old,
Nor aiming at a new and greater thing,
A sun for moon, a future to be made
By first abolishing the present law:
No such proud task for me by any means!
History shows you men whose master-touch
Not so much modifies as makes anew:
Minds that transmute nor need restore at all.
A breath of God made manifest in flesh
Subjects the world to change, from time to time,
Alters the whole conditions of our race
Abruptly, not by unperceived degrees
Nor play of elements already there,
But quite new leaven, leavening the lump,
And liker, so, the natural process. See!
Where winter reigned for ages — by a turn
I' the time, some star-change, (ask geologists)
The ice-tracts split, clash, splinter and disperse.
And there's an end of immobility,
Silence, and all that tinted pageant, base
To pinnacle, one flush from fairy-land
Dead-asleep and deserted somewhere, — see! —
As a fresh sun, wave, spring and joy outburst.
Or else the earth it is, time starts from trance.
Her mountains tremble into fire, her plains
Heave blinded by confusion: what result?
New teeming growth, surprises of strange life
Impossible before, a world broke up
And re-made, order gained by law destroyed.
Not otherwise, in our society
Follow like portents, all as absolute
Regenerations: they have birth at rare
Uncertain unexpected intervals
O' the world, by ministry impossible
Before and after fulness of the days:
Some dervish desert-spectre, swordsman, saint,
Law-giver, lyrist, — Oh, we know the names!
Quite other these than I. Our time requires
No such strange potentate, — who else would dawn, —
No fresh force till the old have spent itself.
Such seems the natural economy.
To shoot a beam into the dark, assists:
To make that beam do fuller service, spread
And utilize such bounty to the height,
That assists also, — and that work is mine.
I recognize, contemplate, and approve
The general compact of society.
Not simply as I see effected good.
But good i' the germ, each chance that's possible
I' the plan traced so far: all results, in short,
For better or worse of the operation due
To those exceptional natures, unlike mine,
Who, helping, thwarting, conscious, unaware.
Did somehow manage to so far describe
This diagram left ready to my hand.
Waiting my turn of trial. I see success.
See failure, see what makes or mars throughout.
How shall I else but help complete this plan
Of which I know the purpose and approve,
By letting stay therein what seems to stand,
And adding good thereto of easier reach
To-day than yesterday?

So much, no more!
Whereon, "No more than that?" — inquire aggrieved
Half of my critics: "nothing new at all?
The old plan saved, instead of a sponged slate
And fresh-drawn figure?" — while, "So much as that?"
Object their fellows of the other faith:
"Leave uneffaced the crazy labyrinth
Of alteration and amendment, lines
Which every dabster felt in duty bound
To signalize his power of pen and ink
By adding to a plan once plain enough?
Why keep each fool's bequeathment, scratch and blurr
Which overscrawl and underscore the piece —
Nay, strengthen them by touches of your own?"

Well, that 's my mission, so I serve the world,
Figure as man o' the moment, — in default
Of somebody inspired to strike such change
Into society — from round to square.
The ellipsis to the rhomboid, how you please,
As suits the size and shape o' the world he finds.
But this I can, — and nobody my peer, —
Do the best with the least change possible:
Carry the incompleteness on, a stage,
Make what was crooked straight, and roughness smooth.
And weakness strong: wherein if I succeed,
It will not prove the worst achievement, sure.
In the eyes at least of one man, one I look
Nowise to catch in critic company:
To-wit, the man inspired, the genius' self
Destined to come and change things thoroughly.
He, at least, finds his business simplified.
Distinguishes the done from undone, reads
Plainly what meant and did not mean this time
We live in, and I work on, and transmit
To such successor: he will operate
On good hard substance, not mere shade and shine.
Let all my critics, born to idleness
And impotency, get their good, and have
Their hooting at the giver: I am deaf —
Who find great good in this society,
Great gain, the purchase of great labour. Touch
The work I may and must, but — reverent
In every fall o' the finger-tip, no doubt.
Perhaps I find all good there's warrant for
I' the world as yet: nay, to the end of time, —
Since evil never means part company
With mankind, only shift side and change shape.
I find advance i' the main, and notably
The Present an improvement on the Past,
And promise for the Future — which shall prove
Only the Present with its rough made smooth,
Its indistinctness emphasized; I hope
No better, nothing newer for mankind,
But something equably smoothed everywhere,
Good, reconciled with hardly-quite-as-good,
Instead of good and bad each jostling each.
"And that's all?" Ay, and quite enough for me!
We have toiled so long to gain what gain I find
I' the Present, — let us keep it! We shall toil
So long before we gain — if gain God grant —
A Future with one touch of difference
I' the heart of things, and not their outside face, —
Let us not risk the whiff of my cigar
For Fourier, Comte and all that ends in smoke!

This I see clearest probably of men
With power to act and influence, now alive:
Juster than they to the true state of things;
In consequence, more tolerant that, side
By side, shall co-exist and thrive alike
In the age, the various sorts of happiness
jNIoral, mark! — not material — moods o' the mind
Suited to man and man his opposite:
Say, minor modes of movement — hence to there,
Or thence to here, or simply round about —
So long as each toe spares its neighbour's kibe,
Nor spoils the major march and main advance.
The love of peace, care for the family,
Contentment with what's bad but might be worse —
Good movements these! and good, too, discontent,
So long as that spurs good, which might be best,
Into becoming better, anyhow:
Good — pride of country, putting hearth and home
I' the back-ground, out of undue prominence:
Good — yearning after change, strife, victory,
And triumph. Each shall have its orbit marked,
But no more, — none impede the other's path
In this wide world, — though each and all alike,
Save for me, fain would spread itself through space
And leave its fellow not an inch of way.
I rule and regulate the course, excite,
Restrain: because the whole machine should march
Impelled by those diversely-moving parts,
Each blind to aught beside its little bent.
Out of the turnings round and round inside,
Comes that straightforward world-advance, I want,
And none of them supposes God wants too
And gets through just their hindrance and my help.
I think that to have held the balance straight
For twenty years, say, weighing claim and claim,
And giving each its due, no less no more,
This was good service to humanity,
Right usage of my power in head and heart,
And reasonable piety beside.
Keep those three points in mind while judging me!
You stand, perhaps, for some one man, not men, —
Represent this or the other interest,
Nor mind the general welfare, — so, impugn
My practice and dispute my value: why?
You man of faith, I did not tread the world
Into a paste, and thereof make a smooth
Uniform mound whereon to plant your flag,
The lily-white, above the blood and brains!
Nor yet did I, you man of faithlessness,
So roll things to the level which you love,
That you could stand at ease there and survey
The universal Nothing undisgraced
By pert obtrusion of some old church-spire
I' the distance! Neither friend would I content,
Nor, as the world were simply meant for him.
Thrust out his fellow and mend God's mistake.
Why, you two fools, — my dear friends all the same, —
Is it some change o' the world and nothing else
Contents you? Should whatever was, not be?
How thanklessly you view things! There 's the root
Of the evil, source of the entire mistake:
You see no worth i' the world, nature and life,
Unless we change what is to what may be.
Which means, — may be, i' the brain of one of you!
"Reject what is?" — all capabilities —
Nay, you may style them chances if you choose —
All chances, then, of happiness that lie
Open to anybody that is born,
Tumbles into this life and out again, —
All that may happen, good and evil too,
I' the space between, to each adventurer
Upon this 'sixty, Anno Domini:
A life to live — and such a life a world
To learn, one's lifetime in, — and such a world!
However did the foolish pass for wise
By calling life a burden, man a fly
Or worm or what's most insignificant?
"O littleness of man!" deplores the bard;
And then, for fear the Powers should punish him,
I' the space between, to each adventurer
Upon this 'sixty, Anno Domini:
A life to live — and such a life a world
To learn, one's lifetime in, — and such a world!
However did the foolish pass for wise
By calling life a burden, man a fly
Or worm or what's most insignificant?
"O littleness of man!" deplores the bard;
And then, for fear the Powers should punish him,
"O grandeur of the visible universe
Our human littleness contrasts withal!
O sun, O moon, ye mountains and thou sea,
Thou emblem of immensity, thou this,
That and the other, — what impertinence
In man to eat and drink and walk about
And have his little notions of his own,
The while some wave sheds foam upon the shore!"
First of all, 't is a lie some three-times thick:
The bard, — this sort of speech being poetry, —
The bard puts mankind well outside himself
And then begins instructing them: "This way
I and my friend the sea conceive of you!
What would you give to think such thoughts as ours
Of you and the sea together? "Down they go
On the humbled knees of them: at once they draw
Distinction, recognize no mate of theirs
In one, despite his mock humility,
So plain a match for what he plays with. Next,
The turn of the great ocean-play-fellow,
When the bard, leaving Bond Street very far
From ear-shot, cares not to ventriloquize,
But tells the sea its home-truths: "You, my match?
You, all this terror and inmiensity
And what not? Shall I tell you what you are?
Just fit to hitch into a stanza, so
Wake up and set in motion who's asleep
O' the other side of you, in England, else
Unaware, as folk pace their Bond Street now,
Somebody here despises them so much!
Between us, — they are the ultimate! to them
And their perception go these lordly thoughts:
Since what were ocean — mane and tail, to boot —
Mused I not here, how make thoughts thinkable?
Start forth my stanza and astound the world!
Back, billows, to your insignificance!
Deep, you are done with!"

Learn, my gifted friend,
There are two things i' the world, still wiser folk
Accept — intelligence and sympathy.
You pant about unutterable power
I' the ocean, all you feel but cannot speak?
Why, that's the plainest speech about it all.
You did not feel what was not to be felt.
Well, then, all else but what man feels is naught —
The wash o' the liquor that o'erbrims the cup
Called man, and runs to waste adown his side,
Perhaps to feed a cataract, — who cares?
I'll tell you: all the more I know mankind,
The more I thank God, like my grandmother,
For making me a little lower than
The angels, honour-clothed and glory-crowned:
This is the honour, — that no thing I know,
Feel or conceive, but I can make my own
Somehow, by use of hand or head or heart:
This is the glory, — that in all conceived.
Or felt or known, I recognize a mind
Not mine but like mine, — for the double joy, —
Making all things for me and me for Him.
There's folly for you at this time of day!
So think it! and enjoy your ignorance
Of what — no matter for the worthy's name —
Wisdom set working in a noble heart,
When he, who was earth's best geometer
Up to that time of day, consigned his life
With its results into one matchless book,
The triumph of the human mind so far.
All in geometry man yet could do:
And then wrote on the dedication-page
In place of name the universe applauds,
"But, God, what a geometer art Thou!"
I suppose Heaven is, through Eternity,
The equalizing, ever and anon,
In momentary rapture, great with small,
Omniscience with intelligency, God
With man, — the thunder-glow from pole to pole
Abolishing, a blissful moment-space,
Great cloud alike and small cloud, in one fire —
As sure to ebb as sure again to flow
When the new receptivity deserves
The new completion. There's the Heaven for me.
And I say, therefore, to live out one's life
I' the world here, with the chance, — whether by pain
Or pleasure be the process, long or short
The time, august or mean the circumstance
To human eye, — of learning how set foot
Decidedly on some one path to Heaven,
Touch segment in the circle whence all lines
Lead to the centre equally, red lines
Or black lines, so they but produce themselves —
This, I do say, — and here my sermon ends, —
This makes it worth our while to tenderly
Handle a state of things which mend we might.
Mar we may, but which meanwhile helps so far.
Therefore my end is — save society!

"And that's all?" twangs the never-failing taunt
O' the foe — "No novelty, creativeness,
Mark of the master that renews the age?"
"Nay, all that?" rather will demur my judge
I look to hear some day, nor friend nor foe —
"Did you attain, then, to perceive that God
Knew what He undertook when He made things?"
Ay: that my task was to co-operate
Rather than play the rival, chop and change
The order whence comes all the good we know,
With this, — good's last expression to our sense, —
That there's a further good conceivable
Beyond the utmost earth can realize:
And, therefore, that to change the agency,
The evil whereby good is brought about —
Try to make good do good as evil does —
Were just as if a chemist, wanting white.
And knowing black ingredients bred the dye.
Insisted these too should be white forsooth!
Correct the evil, mitigate your best,
Blend mild with harsh, and soften black to gray
If gray may follow with no detriment
To the eventual perfect purity!
But as for hazarding the main result
By hoping to anticipate one half
In the intermediate process, — no, my friends!
This bad world, I experience and approve;
Your good world, — with no pity, courage, hope.
Fear, sorrow, joy, — devotedness, in short,
Which I account the ultimate of man,
Of which there's not one day nor hour but brings
In flower or fruit, some sample of success,
Out of this same society I save —
None of it for me! That I might have none,
I rapped your tampering knuckles twenty years.
Such was the task imposed me, such my end.

Now for the means thereto. Ah, confidence —
Keep we together or part company?
This is the critical minute! "Such my end?"
Certainly; how could it be otherwise?
Can there be question which was the right task —
To save or to destroy society?
Why, even prove that, by some miracle,
Destruction were the proper work to choose,
And that a torch best remedies what's wrong
I' the temple, whence the long procession wound
Of powers and beauties, earth's achievements all.
The human strength that strove and overthrew, —
The human love that, weak itself, crowned strength,—
The instinct crying "God is whence I came!" —
The reason laying down the law "And such
His will i' the world must be! " — the leap and shout
Of genius "For I hold His very thoughts,
The meaning of the mind of Him!" — nay, more
The ingenuities, each active force
That turning in a circle on itselt
Looks neither up nor down but keeps the spot.
Mere creature-like and, for religion, works,
Works only and works ever, makes and shapes
And changes, still wrings more of good from less,
Still stamps some bad out, where was worst before.
So leaves the handiwork, the act and deed.
Were it but house and land and wealth, to show
Here was a creature perfect in the kind —
Whether as bee, beaver, or behemoth,
What's the importance? he has done his work
For work's sake, worked well, earned a creature's praise; —
I say, concede that same fane, whence deploys
Age after age, all this humanity,
Diverse but ever dear, out of the dark
Behind the altar into the broad day
By the portal — enter, and, concede there mocks
Each lover of free motion and much space
A perplexed length of apse and aisle and nave, —
Pillared roof and carved screen, and what care I?
That irk the movement and impede the march, —
Nay, possibly, bring flat upon his nose
At some odd break-neck angle, by some freak
Of old-world artistry, that personage
Who, could he but have kept his skirts from grief
And catching at the hooks and crooks about,
Had stepped out on the daylight of our time
Plainly the man of the age, — still, still, I bar
Excessive conflagration in the case.
"Shake the flame freely!" shout the multitude:
The architect approves I stuck my torch
Inside a good stout lantern, hung its light
Above the hooks and crooks, and ended so.
To save society was well: the means
Whereby to save it, — there begins the doubt
Permitted you, imperative on me;
Were mine the best means? Did I work aright
With powers appointed me? — since powers denied
Concern me nothing.

Well, my work reviewed
Fairly, leaves more hope than discouragement.
First, there's the deed done: what I found, I leave,-
What tottered, I kept stable: if it stand
One month, without sustainment, still thank me
The twenty years' sustainer! Now, observe,
Sustaining is no brilliant self-display
Like knocking down or even setting up:
Much bustle these necessitate; and still
To vulgar eye, the mightier of the myth
Is Hercules, who substitutes his own
For Atlas' shoulder and supports the globe
A whole day, — not the passive and obscure
Atlas who bore, ere Hercules was born,
And is to go on bearing that same load
When Hercules turns ash on OEta's top.
'T is the transition-stage, the tug and strain.
That strike men: standing still is stupid-like.
My pressure was too constant on the whole
For any part's eruption into space
Mid sparkles, crackling, and much praise of me.
I saw that, in the ordinary life,
Many of the little make a mass of men
Important beyond greatness here and there;
As certainly as, in life exceptional,
When old things terminate and new commence,
A solitary great man's worth the world.
God takes the business into His own hands
At such time: who creates the novel flower
Contrives to guard and give it breathing-room:
I merely tend the corn-field, care for crop,
And weed no acre thin to let emerge
What prodigy may stifle there perchance,
— No, though my eye have noted where he lurks.
Oh those mute myriads that spoke loud to me —
The eyes that craved to see the light, the mouths
That sought the daily bread and nothing more,
The hands that supplicated exercise,
Men that had wives, and women that had babes,
And all these making suit to only live!
Was I to turn aside from husbandry,
Leave hope of harvest for the corn, my care,
To play at horticulture, rear some rose
Or poppy into perfect leaf and bloom
When, mid the furrows, up was pleased to sprout
Some man, cause, system, special interest
I ought to study, stop the world meanwhile?
"But I am Liberty, Philanthropy,
Enhghtenment, or Patriotism, the power
Whereby you are to stand or fall!" cries each:
"Mine and mine only be the flag you flaunt!"
And, when I venture to object "Meantime,
What of yon myriads with no flag at all —
My crop which, who flaunts flag must tread across?"
"Now, this it is to have a puny mind!"
Admire my mental prodigies: "down — down —
Ever at home o' the level and the low.
There bides he brooding! Could he look above,
With less of the owl and more of the eagle eye,
He'd see there's no way helps the little cause
Like the attainment of the great. Dare first
The chief emprise; dispel yon cloud between
The sun and us; nor fear that, though our heads
Find earlier warmth and comfort from his ray,
What Hes about our feet, the multitude,
Will fail of benefaction presently.
Come now, let each of us awhile cry truce
To special interests, make common cause
Against the adversary — or perchance
Mere dullard to his own plain interest!
Which of us will you choose? — since needs must be
Some one o' the warring causes you incline
To hold, i' the main, has right and should prevail;
Why not adopt and give it prevalence?
Choose strict Faith or lax Incredulity, —
King, Caste and Cultus — or the Rights of Man,
Sovereignty of each Proudhon o'er himself,
And all that follows in just consequence!
Go free the stranger from a foreign yoke;
Or stay, concentrate energy at home;
Succeed! — when he deserves, the stranger will.
Comply with the Great Nation's impulse, print
By force of arms, — since reason pleads in vain,
And, mid the sweet compulsion, pity weeps, —
Hohenstiel-Schwangau on the universe!
Snub the Great Nation, cure the impulsive itch
With smartest fillip on a restless nose
Was ever launched by thumb and finger! Bid
Hohenstiel-Schwangau first repeal the tax
On pig-tails and pomatum and then mind
Abstruser matters for next century!
Is your choice made? Why then, act up to choice!
Leave the illogical touch now here now there
I' the way of work, the tantalizing help
First to this then the other opposite:
The blowing hot and cold, sham policy,
Sure ague of the mind and nothing more,
Disease of the perception or the Will,
That fain would hide in a fine name! Your choice,
Speak it out and condemn yourself thereby!"

Well, Leicester-square is not the Residenz:
Instead of shrugging shoulder, turning friend
The deaf ear, with a wink to the police —
I'll answer — by a question, wisdom's mode.
How many years, o' the average, do men
Live in this world? Some score, say computists.
Quintuple me that term and give mankind
The likely hundred, and with all my heart
I'll take your task upon me, work your way,
Concentrate energy on some one cause:
Since, counseller, I also have my cause,
My flag, my faith in its effect, my hope
In its eventual triumph for the good
O' the world. And once upon a time, when I
Was like all you, mere voice and nothing more,
Myself took wings, soared sun-ward, and thence sang
"Look where I live i' the loft, come up to me,
Groundlings, nor grovel longer I gain this height.
And prove you breathe here better than below!
Why, what emancipation far and wide
Will follow in a trice! They too can soar,
Each tenant of the earth's circumference
Claiming to elevate humanity,
They also must attain such altitude,
Live in the luminous circle that surrounds
The planet, not the leaden orb itself.
Press out, each point, from surface to yon verge
Which one has gained and guaranteed your realm!"
Ay, still my fragments wander, music-fraught,
Sighs of the soul, mine once, mine now, and mine
For ever! Crumbled arch, crushed aqueduct,
Alive with tremors in the shaggy growth
Of wild-wood, crevice-sown, that triumphs there
Imparting exultation to the hills!
Sweep of the swathe when only the winds walk
And waft my words above the grassy sea
Under the blinding blue that basks o'er Rome, —
Hear ye not still — "Be Italy again?"
And ye, what strikes the panic to your heart?
Decrepit council-chambers, — where some lamp
Drives the unbroken black three paces off
From where the greybeards huddle in debate,
Dim cowls and capes, and midmost glimmers one
Like tarnished gold, and what they say is doubt.
And what they think is fear, and what suspends
The breath in them is not the plaster-patch
Time disengages from the painted wall
Where Rafael moulderingly bids adieu,
Nor tick of the insect turning tapestry
To dust, which a queen's finger traced of old;
But some word, resonant, redoubtable.
Of who once felt upon his head a hand
Whereof the head now apprehends his foot.
"Light in Rome, Law in Rome, and Liberty
O' the soul in Rome — the free Church, the free State!
Stamp out the nature that's best typified
By its embodiment in Peter's Dome,
The scorpion-body with the greedy pair
Of outstretched nippers, either colonnade
Agape for the advance of heads and hearts!"
There's one cause for you! one and only one.
For I am vocal through the universe,
I' the work-shop, manufactory, exchange
And market-place, sea-port and custom-house
O' the frontier: listen if the echoes die —
"Unfettered commerce! Power to speak and hear,
And print and read! The universal vote!
Its rights for labour!" This, with much beside,
I spoke when I was voice and nothing more,
But altogether such an one as you
My censors. "Voice, and nothing more, indeed!"
Re-echoes round me: "that's the censure, there's
Involved the ruin of you soon or late!
Voice, — when its promise beat the empty air:
And nothing more, — when solid earth's your stage.
And we desiderate performance, deed
For word, the realizing all you dreamed
In the old days: now, for deed, we find at door
O' the council-chamber posted, mute as mouse,
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, sentry and safeguard
O' the greybeards all a-chuckle, cowl to cape.
Who challenge Judas, — that 's endearment's style, —
To stop their mouths or let escape grimace,
While they keep cursing Italy and him.
The power to speak, hear, print and read is ours?
Ay, we learn where and how, when clapped inside
A convict-transport bound for cool Cayenne!
The universal vote we have: its urn,
We also have where votes drop, fingered-o'er
By the universal Prefect. Say, Trade's free
And Toil turned master out o' the slave it was:
What then? These feed man's stomach, but his soul
Craves finer fare, nor lives by bread alone.
As somebody says somewhere. Hence you stand
Proved and recorded either false or weak,
Faulty in promise or performance: which?"
Neither, I hope. Once pedestalled on earth,
To act not speak, I found earth was not air.
I saw that multitude of mine, and not
The nakedness and nullity of air
Fit only for a voice to float in free.
Such eyes I saw that craved the light alone.
Such mouths that wanted bread and nothing else,
Such hands that supplicated handiwork,
Men with the wives, and women with the babes,
Yet all these pleading just to live, not die!
Did I believe one whit less in belief.
Take truth for falsehood, wish the voice revoked
That told the truth to heaven for earth to hear?
No, this should be, and shall; but when and how?
At what expense to these who average
Your twenty years of life, my computists?
"Not bread alone" but bread before all else
For these: the bodily want serve first, said I;
If earth-space and the life-time help not here,
Where is the good of body having been?
But, helping body, if we somewhat baulk
The soul of finer fare, such food's to find
Elsewhere and afterward — all indicates.
Even this self-same fact that soul can starve
Yet body still exist its twenty years:
While, stint the body, there's an end at once
O' the revel in the fancy that Rome's free.
And superstition's fettered, and one prints
Whate'er one pleases and who pleases reads
The same, and speaks out and is spoken to.
And divers hundred thousand fools may vote
A vote untampered with by one wise man,
And so elect Barabbas deputy
In lieu of his concurrent. I who trace
The purpose written on the face of things,
For my behoof and guidance — (whoso needs
No such sustainment, sees beneath my signs,
Proves, what I take for writing, penmanship,
Scribble and flourish with no sense for me
O' the sort I solemnly go spelling out, —
Let him! there 's certain work of mine to show
Alongside his work: which gives warranty
Of shrewder vision in the workman — judge!)
I who trace Providence without a break
I' the plan of things, drop plumb on this plain print
Of an intention with a view to good,
That man is made in sympathy with man
At outset of existence, so to speak;
But in dissociation, more and more,
Man from his fellow, as their lives advance
In culture; still humanity, that's born
A mass, keeps flying off, fining away
Ever into a multitude of points,
And ends in isolation, each from each:
Peerless above i' the sky, the pinnacle, —
Absolute contact, fusion, all below
At the base of being. How comes this about?
This stamp of God characterizing man
And nothing else but man in the universe —
That, while he feels with man (to use man's speech)
I' the little things of life, its fleshly wants
Of food and rest and health and happiness,
Its simplest spirit-motions, loves and hates,
Hopes, fears, soul-cravings on the ignoblest scale,
O' the fellow-creature, — owns the bond at base, —
He tends to freedom and divergency
In the upward progress, plays the pinnacle
When life's at greatest (grant again the phrase!
Because there's neither great nor small in life.)
"Consult thou for thy kind that have the eyes
To see, the mouths to eat, the hands to work,
Men with the wives, and women with the babes!"
Prompts Nature. "Care thou for thyself alone
I' the conduct of the mind God made thee with!
Think, as if man had never thought before!
Act, as if all creation hung attent
On the acting of such faculty as thine,
To take prime pattern from thy masterpiece!"
Nature prompts also: neither law obeyed
To the uttermost by any heart and soul
We know or have in record: both of them
Acknowledged blindly by whatever man
We ever knew or heard of in this world.
"Will you have why and wherefore, and the fact
Made plain as pikestaff?" modern Science asks.
"That mass man sprung from was a jelly-lump
Once on a time; he kept an after course
Through fish and insect, reptile, bird and beast,
Till he attained to be an ape at last
Or last but one. And if this doctrine shock
In aught the natural pride" . . . Friend, banish fear,
The natural humility replies!
Do you suppose, even I, poor potentate,
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, who once ruled the roast, —
I was born able at all points to ply
My tools? or did I have to learn my trade,
Practise as exile ere perform as prince?
The world knows something of my ups and downs:
But grant me time, give me the management
And manufacture of a model me.
Me fifty-fold, a prince without a flaw, —
Why, there's no social grade, the sordidest,
My embryo potentate should blink and scape.
King, all the better he was cobbler once,
He should know, sitting on the throne, how tastes
Life to who sweeps the doorway. But life's hard,
Occasion rare; you cut probation short,
And, being half-instructed, on the stage
You shuffle through your part as best you may,
And bless your stars, as I do. God takes time.
I like the thought He should have lodged me once
I' the hole, the cave, the hut, the tenement.
The mansion and the palace; made me learn
The feel o' the first, before I found myself
Loftier i' the last, not more emancipate
From first to last of lodging, I was I,
And not at all the place that harboured me.
Do I refuse to follow farther yet
I' the backwardness, repine if tree and flower,
Mountain or streamlet were my dwelling-place
Before I gained enlargement, grew mollusc?
As well account that way for many a thrill
Of kinship, I confess to, with the powers
Called Nature: animate, inanimate.
In parts or in the whole, there's something there
Man-like that somehow meets the man in me.
My pulse goes altogether with the heart
O' the Persian, that old Xerxes, when he stayed
His march to conquest of the world, a day
I' the desert, for the sake of one superb
Plane-tree which queened it there in solitude:
Giving her neck its necklace, and each arm
Its armlet, suiting soft waist, snowy side.
With cincture and apparel. Yes, I lodged
In those successive tenements; perchance
Taste yet the straitness of them while I stretch
Limb and enjoy new liberty the more.
And some abodes are lost or ruinous;
Some, patched-up and pieced out, and so transformed
They still accommodate the traveller
His day of life-time. O you count the links,
Descry no bar of the unbroken man?
Yes, — and who welds a lump of ore, suppose
He likes to make a chain and not a bar.
And reach by link on link, link small, link large,
Out to the due length — why, there's forethought still
Outside o' the series, forging at one end.
While at the other there's — no matter what
The kind of critical intelligence
Believing that last link had last but one
For parent, and no link was, first of all,
Fitted to anvil, hammered into shape.
Else, I accept the doctrine, and deduce
This duty, that I recognize mankind,
In all its height and depth and length and breadth.
Mankind i' the main have little wants, not large:
I, being of will and power to help, i' the main,
Mankind, must help the least wants first. My friend,
That is, my foe, without such power and will,
May plausibly concentrate all he wields,
And do his best at helping some large want,
Exceptionally noble cause, that's seen
Subordinate enough from where I stand.
As he helps, I helped once, when like himself.
Unable to help better, work more wide;
And so would work with heart and hand to-day,
Did only computists confess a fault,
And multiply the single score by five,
Five only, give man's life its hundred years.
Change life, in me shall follow change to match!
Time were then, to work here, there, everywhere,
By turns and try experiment at ease!
Full time to mend as well as mar: why wait
The slow and sober uprise all around
O' the building? Let us run up, right to roof.
Some sudden marvel, piece of perfectness,
And testify what we intend the whole!
Is the world losing patience? "Wait!" say we:
"There's time: no generation needs to die
Unsolaced; you Ve a century in store!"
But, no: I sadly let the voices wing
Their way i' the upper vacancy, nor test
Truth on this solid as I promised once.
Well, and what is there to be sad about?
The world's the world, life's life, and nothing else.
'T is part of life, a property to prize.
That those o' the higher sort engaged i' the world,
Should fancy they can change its ill to good.
Wrong to right, ugliness to beauty: find
Enough success in fancy turning fact.
To keep the sanguine kind in countenance
And justify the hope that busies them:
Failure enough, — to who can follow change
Beyond their vision, see new good prove ill
I' the consequence, see blacks and whites of life
Shift square indeed, but leave the chequered face
Unchanged i' the main, — failure enough for such.
To bid ambition keep the whole from change,
As their best service. I hope naught beside.
No, my brave thinkers, whom I recognize,
Gladly, myself the first, as, in a sense,
All that our world's worth, flower and fruit of man!
Such minds myself award supremacy
Over the common insignificance,
When only Mind's in question, — Body bows
To quite another government, you know.
Be Kant crowned king o' the castle in the air!
Hans Slouch, — his own, and children's mouths to feed
I' the hovel on the ground, — wants meat, nor chews
"The Critique of Pure Reason" in exchange.
But, now, — suppose I could allow your claims
And quite change life to please you, — would it please?
Would life comport with change and still be life?
Ask, now, a doctor for a remedy:
There's his prescription. Bid him point you out
Which of the five or six ingredients saves
The sick man. "Such the efficacity?
Then why not dare and do things in one dose
Simple and pure, all virtue, no alloy
Of the idle drop and powder?" What's his word?
The efficacity, neat, were neutralized:
It wants dispersing and retarding, — nay
Is put upon its mettle, plays its part
Precisely through such hindrance everywhere,
Finds some mysterious give and take i' the case,
Some gain by opposition, he foregoes
Should he unfetter the medicament.
So with this thought of yours that fain would work
Free in the world: it wants just what it finds —
The ignorance, stupidity, the hate,
Envy and malice and uncharitableness
That bar your passage, break the flow of you
Down from those happy heights where many a cloud
Combined to give you birth and bid you be
The royalest of rivers: on you glide
Silverly till you reach the summit-edge,
Then over, on to all that ignorance.
Stupidity, hate, envy, bluffs and blocks.
Posted to fret you into foam and noise.
What of it? Up you mount in minute mist,
And bridge the chasm that crushed your quietude,
A spirit-rainbow, earthborn jewelry
Outsparkling the insipid firmament
Blue above Terni and its orange-trees.
Do not mistake me! You, too, have your rights!
Hans must not burn Kant's house above his head,
Because he cannot understand Kant's book:
And still less must Hans' pastor bum Kant's self
Because Kant understands some books too well.
But, justice seen to on this little point,
Answer me, is it manly, is it sage
To stop and struggle with arrangements here
It took so many lives, so much of toil,
To tinker up into efficiency?
Can't you contrive to operate at once, —
Since time is short and art is long, — to show
Your quality i' the world, whatever you boast,
Without this fractious call on folks to crush
The world together just to set you free,
Admire the capers you will cut perchance,
Nor mind the mischief to your neighbours?

"Age!
Age and experience bring discouragement,"
You taunt me: I maintain the opposite.
Am I discouraged who, — perceiving health.
Strength, beauty, as they tempt the eye of soul,
Are uncombinable with flesh and blood, —
Resolve to let my body live its best,
And leave my soul what better yet may be
Or not be, in this life or afterward?
— In either fortune, wiser than who waits
Till magic art procure a miracle.
In virtue of my very confidence
Mankind ought to outgrow its babyhood,
I prescribe rocking, deprecate rough hands,
While thus the cradle holds it past mistake.
Indeed, my task's the harder — equable
Sustainment everywhere, all strain, no push —
Whereby friends credit me with indolence,
Apathy, hesitation. "Stand stock-still
If able to move briskly? 'All a-strain' —
So must we compliment your passiveness?
Sound asleep, rather!"

Just the judgment passed
Upon a statue, luckless like myself,
I saw at Rome once! 'T was some artist's whim
To cover all the accessories close
I' the group, and leave you only Laocoön
With neither sons nor serpents to denote
The purpose of his gesture. Then a crowd
Was called to try the question, criticize
Wherefore such energy of legs and arms.
Nay, eyeballs, starting from the socket. One —
I give him leave to write my history —
Only one said "I think the gesture strives
Against some obstacle we cannot see."
All the rest made their minds up. "'T is a yawn
Of sheer fatigue subsiding to repose:
The Statue's 'Somnolency' clear enough!"
There, my arch stranger-friend, my audience both
And arbitress, you have one half your wish,
At least: you know the thing I tried to do!
All, so far, to my praise and glory — all
Told as befits the self-apologist, —
Who ever promises a candid sweep
And clearance of those errors miscalled crimes
None knows more, none laments so much as he,
And ever rises from confession, proved
A god whose fault was — trying to be man.
Just so, fair judge, — if I read smile aright —
I condescend to figure in your eyes
As biggest heart and best of Europe's friends,
And hence my failure. God will estimate
Success one day; and, in the mean time — you!
I daresay there's some fancy of the sort
Frolicking round this final puff I send
To die up yonder in the ceiling-rose, —
Some consolation-stakes, we losers win!
A plague of the return to "I — I — I
Did this, meant that, hoped, feared the other thing!"
Autobiography, adieu! The rest
Shall make amends, be pure blame, history
And falsehood: not the ineffective truth,
But Thiers-and-Victor-Hugo exercise.
Hear what I never was, but might have been
I' the better world where goes tobacco-smoke!
Here lie the dozen volumes of my life:
(Did I say "lie?" the pregnant word will serve.)
Cut on to the concluding chapter, though!
Because the little hours begin to strike.
Hurry Thiers-Hugo to the labour's end!

Something like this the unwritten chapter reads.

Exemplify the situation thus!
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, being, no dispute,
Absolute mistress, chose the Assembly, first,
To serve her: chose this man, its President
Afterward, to serve also, — specially
To see that they did service one and all.
And now the proper term of years was out.
When the Head-servant must vacate his place;
And nothing lay so patent to the world
As that his fellow-servants one and all
Were — mildly make we mention — knaves or fools,
Each of them with his purpose flourished full
I' the face of you by word and impudence,
Or filtered slyly out by nod and wink
And nudge upon your sympathetic rib —
That not one minute more did knave or fool
Mean to keep faith and serve as he had sworn
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, once that Head away.
Why did such swear except to get the chance,
When time should ripen and confusion bloom,
Of putting Hohenstielers-Schwangauese
To the true use of human property?
Restoring souls and bodies, this to Pope,
And that to King, that other to his planned
Perfection of a Share-and-share-alike,
That other still, to Empire absolute
In shape of the Head-servant's very self
Transformed to master whole and sole: each scheme
Discussible, concede one circumstance —
That each scheme's parent were, beside himself,
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, not her serving-man
Sworn to do service in the way she chose
Rather than his way: way superlative,
Only, — by some infatuation, — his
And his and his and everyone's but hers
Who stuck to just the Assembly and the Head.
I niake no doubt the Head, too, had his dream
Of doing sudden duty swift and sure
On all that heap of untrustworthiness —
Catching each vaunter of the villany
He meant to perpetrate when time was ripe,
Once the Head-servant fairly out of doors, —
And, caging here a knave and there a fool,
Cry "Mistress of the servants, these and me,
Hohenstiel-Schwangau! I, their trusty Head,
Pounce on a pretty scheme concocting here
That's stopped, extinguished by my vigilance.
Your property is safe again: but mark!
Safe in these hands, not yours, who lavish trust
Too lightly. Leave my hands their charge awhile!
I know your business better than yourself:
Let me alone about it! Some fine day,
Once we are rid of the embarrassment,
You shall look up and see your longings crowned!"
Such fancy may have tempted to be false,
But this man chose truth and was wiser so.
He recognized that for great minds i' the world
There is no trial like the appropriate one
Of leaving little minds their liberty
Of littleness to blunder on through life,
Now, aiming at right end by foolish means.
Now, at absurd achievement through the aid
Of good and wise means: trial to acquiesce
In folly's life-long privilege — though with power
To do the little minds the good they need,
Despite themselves, by just abolishing
Their right to play the part and fill the place
I' the scheme of things He schemed who made alike
Great minds and little minds, saw use for each.
Could the orb sweep those puny particles
It just half-lights at distance, hardly leads
I' the leash — sweep out each speck of them from space
They anticize in with their days and nights
And whirlings round and dancings off, forsooth,
And all that fruitless individual life
One cannot lend a beam to but they spoil —
Sweep them into itself and so, one star,
Preponderate henceforth i' the heritage
Of heaven! No! in less senatorial phrase.
The man endured to help, not save outright
The multitude by substituting him
For them, his knowledge, will and way, for God's:
Not change the world, such as it is, and was
And will be, for some other, suiting all
Except the purpose of the maker. No!
He saw that weakness, wickedness will be,
And therefore should be: that the perfect man
As we account perfection — at most pure
0' the special gold, whate'er the form it take,
Head-work or heart-work, fined and thrice-refined
I' the crucible of life, whereto the powers
Of the refiner, one and all, were flung
To feed the flame their utmost, — e'en that block.
He holds out breathlessly triumphant, — breaks
Into some poisonous ore, its opposite.
At the very purest, so compensating
The Adversary — what if we believe?
For earlier stern exclusion of his stuff.
See the sage, with the hunger for the truth,
And see his system that's all true, except
The one weak place that's stanchioned by a lie!
The moralist, that walks with head erect
I' the crystal clarity of air so long.
Until a stumble, and the man's one mire!
Philanthropy undoes the social knot
With axe-edge, makes love room 'twixt head and trunk!
Religion — but, enough, the thing's too clear!
Well, if these sparks break out i' the greenest tree.
Our topmost of performance, yours and mine,
AVhat will be done i' the dry ineptitude
Of ordinary mankind, Ipark and bole.
All seems ashamed of but their mother-earth?
Therefore throughout his term of servitude
He did the appointed service, and forbore
Extraneous action that were duty else,
Done by some other servant, idle now
Or mischievous: no matter, each his own —
Own task, and, in the end, own praise or blame!
He suffered them strut, prate and brag their best.
Squabble at odds on every point save one,
And there shake hands, — agree to trifle time,
Obstruct advance with, each, his cricket-cry
"Wait till the Head be off the shoulders here!
Then comes my King, my Pope, my Autocrat,
My Socialist Republic to her own —
To-wit, that property of only me,
Hohenstiel-Schwangau who conceits herself
Free, forsooth, and expects I keep her so!"
— Nay, suffered when, perceiving with dismay
His silence paid no tribute to their noise,
They turned on him. "Dumb menace in that mouth,
Malice in that unstridulosity!
He cannot but intend some stroke of state
Shall signalize his passage into peace
Out of the creaking, — hinder transference
O' the Hohenstielers-Schwangauese to king.
Pope, autocrat, or socialist republic! That's
Exact the cause his lips unlocked would cry!
Therefore be stirring: brave, beard, bully him!
Dock, by the million, of its friendly joints,
The electoral body short at once! who did,
May do again, and undo us beside.
Wrest from his hands the sword for self-defence,
The right to parry any thrust in play
We peradventure please to meditate!"
And so forth; creak, creak, creak: and ne'er a line
His locked mouth oped the wider, till at last
O' the long degraded and insulting day,
Sudden the clock told it was judgment-time.
Then he addressed himself to speak indeed
To the fools, not knaves: they saw him walk straight down
Each step of the eminence, as he first engaged,
And stand at last o' the level, — all he swore.
"People, and not the people's varletry,
This is the task you set myself and these!
Thus I performed my part of it, and thus
They thwarted me throughout, here, here, and here:
Study each instance! yours the loss, not mine.
What they intend now is demonstrable
As plainly: here's such man, and here's such mode
Of making you some other than the thing
You, wisely or unwisely, choose to be,
And only set him up to keep you so.
Do you approve this? Yours the loss, not mine.
Do you condemn it? There's a remedy.
Take me — who know your mind, and mean your good,
With clearer head and stouter arm than they,
Or you, or haply anybody else —
And make me master for the moment! Choose
What time, what power you trust me with: I too
Will choose as frankly ere I trust myself
With time and power: they must be adequate
To the end and aim, since mine the loss, with yours
If means be wanting; once their worth approved,
Grant them, and I shall forthwith operate —
Ponder it well! — to the extremest stretch
0' the power you trust me: if with unsuccess,
God wills it, and there's nobody to blame."

Whereon the people answered with a shout
"The trusty one! no tricksters any more!"
How could they other? He was in his place.

What followed? Just what he foresaw, what proved
The soundness of both judgments, — his, o' the knaves
And fools, each trickster with his dupe, — and theirs
The people, in what head and arm should help.
There was uprising, masks dropped, flags unfurled,
Weapons outflourished in the wind, my faith!
Heavily did he let his fist fall plumb
On each perturber of the public peace,
No matter whose the wagging head it broke —
From bald-pate craft and greed and impudence
Of night-hawk at first cliance to prowl and prey
For glory and a little gain beside,
Passing for eagle in the dusk of the age, —
To florid head-top, foamy patriotism
And tribunitial daring, breast laid bare
Thro' confidence in rectitude, with hand
On private pistol in the pocket: these
And all the dupes of these, who lent themselves
As dust and feather do, to help offence
O' the wind that whirls them at you, then subsides
In safety somewhere, leaving filth afloat,
Annoyance you may brush from eyes and beard, —
These he stopped: bade the wind's spite howl or whine
Its worst outside the building, wind conceives
Meant to be pulled together and become
Its natural playground so. What foolishness
Of dust or feather proved importunate
And fell 'twixt thumb and finger, found them gripe
To detriment of bulk and buoyancy.
Then followed silence and submission. Next,
The inevitable comment came on work
And work's cost; he was censured as profuse
Of human life and liberty: too swift
And thorough his procedure, who had lagged
At the outset, lost the opportunity
Through timid scruples as to right and wrong.
"There's no such certain mark of a small mind"
(So did Sagacity explain the fault)
"As when it needs must square away and sink
To its own small dimensions, private scale
Of right and wrong, — humanity i' the large,
The right and wrong of the universe, forsooth!
This man addressed himself to guard and guide
Hohenstiel-Schwangau. When the case demands
He frustrate villany in the egg, unhatched,
With easy stamp and minimum of pang
E'en to the punished reptile, 'There's my oath
Restrains my foot,' objects our guide and guard,
'I must leave guardianship and guidance now:
Rather than stretch one handbreadth of the law,
I am bound to see it break from end to end.
First show me death i' the body politic:
Then prescribe pill and potion, what may please
Hohenstiel-Schwangau! all is for her sake:
'T was she ordained my service should be so.
What if the event demonstrate her unwise,
If she unwill the thing she willed before?
I hold to the letter and obey the bond
And leave her to perdition loyally.'
Whence followed thrice the expenditure we blame
Of human life and liberty: for want
O' the by-blow, came deliberate butcher's-work!"
"Elsewhere go carry your complaint!" bade he.
"Least, largest, there's one law for all the minds,
Here or above: be true at any price!
'T is just o' the great scale, that such happy stroke
Of falsehood would be found a failure. Truth
Still stands unshaken at her base by me,
Reigns paramount i' the world, for the large good
O' the long late generations, — I and you
Forgotten like this buried foohshness!
Not so the good I rooted in its grave."

This is why he refused to break his oath,
Rather appealed to the people, gained the power
To act as he thought best, then used it, once
For all, no matter what the consequence
To knaves and fools. As thus began his sway,
So, through its twenty years, one rule of right
Sufficed him: govern for the many first,
The poor mean multitude, all mouths and eyes:
Bid the few, better favoured in the brain,
Be patient, nor presume on privilege.
Help him, or else be quiet, — never crave
That he help them, — increase, forsooth, the gulf
Yawning so terribly 'twixt mind and mind
I' the world here, which his purpose was to block
At bottom, were it by an inch, and bridge,
If by a filament, no more, at top,
Equalize things a little! And the way
He took to work that purpose out, was plain
Enough to intellect and honesty
And — superstition, style it if you please,
So long as you allow there was no lack
O' the quality imperative in man —
Reverence. You see deeper? thus saw he,
And by the light he saw, must walk: how else
Was he to do his part? the man's, with might
And main, and not a faintest touch of fear
Sure he was in the hand of God who comes
Before and after, with a work to do
Which no man helps nor hinders. Thus the man,
So timid when the business was to touch
The uncertain order of humanity,
Imperil, for a problematic cure
Of grievance on the surface, any good
I' the deep of things, dim yet discernible —
This same man, so irresolute before,
Show him a true excrescence to cut sheer,
A devil's-graft on God's foundation-stone,
Then — no complaint of indecision more!
He wrenched out the whole canker, root and branch,
Deaf to who cried the world would tumble in
At its four corners if he touched a twig.
Witness that lie of lies, arch-infamy.
When the Republic, with all life involved
In just this law — "Each people rules itself
Its own way, not as any stranger please" —
Turned, and for first proof she was living, bade
Hohenstiel-Schwangau fasten on the throat
Of the first neighbour that claimed benefit
O' the law herself established: "Hohenstiel
For Hohenstielers! Rome, by parity
Of reasoning, for Romans? That 's a jest
Wants proper treatment, — lancet-puncture suits
The proud flesh: Rome ape Hohenstiel forsooth!"
And so the siege and slaughter and success
Whereof we nothing doubt that Hohenstiel
Will have to pay the price, in God's good time,
Which does not always fall on Saturday
When the world looks for wages. Any how.
He found this infamy triumphant. Well, —
Sagacity suggested, make this speech!
"The work was none of mine: suppose wrong wait,
Stand over for redressing? Mine for me,
My predecessors' work on their own head!
Meantime, there's plain advantage, should we leave
Things as we find them. Keep Rome manacled
Hand and foot: no fear of unruliness!
Her foes consent to even seem our friends
So long, no longer. Then, there's glory got
I' the boldness and bravado to the world.
The disconcerted world must grin and bear
The old saucy writing, — 'Grunt thereat who may,
So shall things be, for such my pleasure is —
Hohenstiel-Schwangau.' How that reads in Rome
I' the Capitol where Brennus broke his pate!
And what a flourish for our journalists!"

Only, it was nor read nor flourished of,
Since, not a moment did such glory stay
Excision of the canker! Out it came,
Root and branch, with much roaring, and some blood,
And plentiful abuse of him from friend
And foe. Who cared? Not Nature, that assuaged
The pain and set the patient on his legs
Promptly: the better! had it been the worse,
'T is Nature you must try conclusions with,
Not he, since nursing canker kills the sick
For certain, while to cut may cure, at least.
"Ah," groaned a second time Sagacity,
"Again the little mind, precipitate,
Rash, rude, when even in the right, as here!
The great mind knows the power of gentleness,
Only tries force because persuasion fails.
Had this man, by prelusive trumpet-blast,
Signified 'Truth and Justice mean to come.
Nay, fast approach your threshold! Ere they knock,
See that the house be set in order, swept
And garnished, windows shut, and doors thrown wide!
The free State comes to visit the free Church:
Receive her! or . . or . . never mind what else!'
Thus moral suasion heralding brute force,
How had he seen the old abuses die,
And new life kindle here, there, everywhere.
Roused simply by that mild yet potent spell —
Beyond or beat of drum or stroke of sword —
Public opinion!"

"How, indeed?" he asked,
"When all to see, after some twenty years,
Were your own fool-face waiting for the sight.
Faced by as wide a grin from ear to ear
O' the knaves that, while the fools were waiting, worked —
Broke yet another generation's heart —
Twenty years' respite helping! Teach your nurse
'Compliance with, before you suck, the teat!'
Find what that means, and meanwhile hold your tongue!"

Whereof the war came which he knew must be.

Now, this had proved the dry-rot of the race
He ruled o'er, that, in the old day, when was need
They fought for their own liberty and life,
Well did they fight, none better: whence, such love
Of fighting somehow still for fighting's sake
Against no matter whose the liberty
And life, so long as self-conceit should crow
And clap the wing, while justice sheathed her claw, —
That what had been the glory of the world
When thereby came the world's good, grew its plague
Now that the champion-armour, donned to dare
The dragon once, was clattered up and down
Highway and by-path of the world at peace,
Merely to mask marauding, or for sake
O' the shine and rattle that apprized the fields
Hohenstiel-Schwangau was a fighter yet.
And would be, till the weary world suppressed
A peccant humour out of fashion now.
Accordingly the world spoke plain at last.
Promised to punish who next played with fire.

So, at his advent, such discomfiture
Taking its true shape of beneficence,
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, half-sad and part-wise,
Sat: if with wistful eye reverting oft
To each pet weapon rusty on its peg,
Yet, with a sigh of satisfaction too
That, peacefulness become the law, herself
Got the due share of godsends in its train,
Cried shame and took advantage quietly.
Still, so the dry-rot had been nursed into
Blood, bones and marrow, that, from worst to best,
All, — clearest brains and soundest hearts, save here, —
All had this lie acceptable for law
Plain as the sun at noonday — "War is best,
Peace is worst; peace we only tolerate
As needful preparation for new war:
War may be for whatever end we will —
Peace only as the proper help thereto.
Such is the law of right and wrong for us
Hohenstiel-Schwangau: for the other world,
As naturally, quite another law.
Are we content? The world is satisfied.
Discontent? Then the world must give us leave
Strike right and left to exercise our arm
Torpid of late through overmuch repose,
And show its strength is still superlative
At somebody's expense in life or limb:
Which done, — let peace succeed and last a year!"
Such devil's-doctrine was so judged God's law,
We say, when this man stepped upon the stage,
That it had seemed a venial fault at most
Had he once more obeyed Sagacity.
"You come i' the happy interval of peace,
The favourable weariness from war:
Prolong it! — artfully, as if intent
On ending peace as soon as possible.
Quietly so increase the sweets of ease
And safety, so employ the multitude.
Put hod and trowel so in idle hands.
So stuff and stop the wagging jaws with bread.
That selfishness shall surreptitiously
Do wisdom's office, whisper in the ear
Of Hohenstiel-Schwangau, there's a pleasant feel
In being gently forced down, pinioned fast
To the easy arm-chair by the pleading arms
O' the world beseeching her to there abide
Content with all the harm done hitherto,
And let herself be petted in return,
Free to re-wage, in speech and prose and verse,
The old unjust wars, nay — in verse and prose
And speech, — to vaunt new victories, as vile
A plague o' the future, — so that words suffice
For present comfort, and no deeds denote
That, — tired of illimitable line on line
Of boulevard-building, tired o' the theatre
With the tuneful thousand in their thrones above.
For glory of the male intelligence.
And Nakedness in her due niche below,
For illustration of the female use —
She, 'twixt a yawn and sigh, prepares to slip
Out of the arm-chair, wants some blood again
From over the boundary, to colour-up
The sheeny sameness, keep the world aware
Hohenstiel-Schwangau must have exercise
Despite the petting of the universe!
Come, you're a city-builder: what's the way
Wisdom takes when time needs that she entice
Some fierce tribe, castled on the mountain-peak,
Into the quiet and amenity
O' the meadow-land below? By crying 'Done
With fight now, down with fortress?' Rather — 'Dare
On, dare ever, not a stone displaced!'
Cries Wisdom, 'Cradle of our ancestors.
Be bulwark, give our children safety still!
Who of our children please, may stoop and taste
O' the valley-fatness, unafraid, — for why?
At first alarm, they have thy mother-ribs
To run upon for refuge; foes forget
Scarcely what Terror on her vantage-coigne,
Couchant supreme among the powers of air,
Watches — prepared to pounce — the country wide!
Meanwhile the encouraged valley holds its own,
From the first hut's adventure in descent.
Half home, half hiding place, — to dome and spire
Befitting the assured metropolis:
Nor means offence to the fort which caps the crag,
All undismantled of a turret-stone,
And bears the banner-pole that creaks at times
Embarrassed by the old emblazonment,
When festal days are to commemorate.
Otherwise left untenanted, no doubt,
Since, never fear, our myriads from below
Would rush, if needs were, man the walls once more.
Renew the exploits of the earlier time
At moment's notice! But till notice sound,
Inhabit we in ease and opulence!'
And so, till one day thus a notice sounds,
Not trumpeted, but in a whisper-gust
Fitfully playing through mute city streets
At midnight weary of day's feast and game —
'Friends, your famed fort's a ruin past repair!
Its use is — to proclaim it had a use
Stolen away long since. Climb to study there
How to paint barbican and battlement
I' the scenes of our new theatre! We fight
Now — by forbidding neighbours to sell steel
Or buy wine, not by blowing out their brains!
Moreover, while we let time sap the strength
O' the walls omnipotent in menace once,
Neighbours would seem to have prepared surprise —
Run up defences in a mushroom-growth,
For all the world like what we boasted: brief —
Hohenstiel-Schwangau's policy is peace!' "

Ay, so Sagacity advised him filch
Folly from fools: handsomely substitute
The dagger o' lath, while gay they sang and danced
For that long dangerous sword they liked to feel,
Even at feast-time, clink and make friends start.
No! he said "Hear the truth, and bear the truth,
And bring the truth to bear on all you are
And do, assured that only good comes thence
Whate'er the shape good take! While I have rule.
Understand! — war for war's sake, war for the sake
O' the good war gets you as war's sole excuse,
Is damnable and damned shall be. You want
Glory? Why so do I, and so does God.
Where is it found, — in this paraded shame, —
One particle of glory? Once you warred
For liberty against the world, and won:
There was the glory. Now, you fain would war
Because the neighbour prospers overmuch, —
Because there has been silence half-an-hour,
Like Heaven on earth, without a cannon-shot
Announcing Hohenstielers-Schwangauese
Are minded to disturb the jubilee, —
Because the loud tradition echoes faint,
And who knows but posterity may doubt
If the great deeds were ever done at all,
Much less believe, were such to do again,
So the event would follow: therefore, prove
The old power, at the expense of somebody!
Oh, Glory, — gilded bubble, bard and sage
So nickname rightly, — would thy dance endure
One moment, would thy mocking make believe
Only one upturned eye thy ball was gold,
Had'st thou less breath to buoy thy vacancy
Than a whole multitude expends in praise,
Less range for roaming than from head to head
Of a whole people? Flit, fall, fly again,
Only, fix never where the resolute hand
May prick thee, prove the lie thou art, at once!
Give me real intellect to reason with,
No multitude, no entity that apes
One wise man, being but a million fools!
How and whence wishest glory, thou wise one?
Would'st get it, — did'st thyself guide Providence, —
By stinting of his due each neighbour round
In strength and knowledge and dexterity
So as to have thy littleness grow large
By all those somethings, once, turned nothings, now,
As children make a molehill mountainous
By scooping out the plain into a trench
And saving so their favourite from approach?
Quite otherwise the cheery game of life.
True yet mimetic warfare, whereby man
Does his best with his utmost, and so ends
The victor most of all in fair defeat.
Who thinks, — would he have no one think beside?
Who knows, who does, — must other learning die
And action perish? Why, our giant proves
No better than a dwarf, with rivalry
Prostrate around him. 'Let the whole race stand
And try conclusions fairly!' he cries first.
Show me the great man would engage his peer
Rather by grinning 'Cheat, thy gold is brass!'
Than granting 'Perfect piece of purest ore!
Still, is it less good mintage, this of mine?'
Well, and these right and sound results of soul
I' the strong and healthy one wise man, — shall such
Be vainly sought for, scornfully renounced
I' the multitude that make the entity —
The people? — to what purpose, if no less.
In power and purity of soul, below
The reach of the unit than, in multiplied
Might of the body, vulgarized the more,
Above, in thick and threefold brutishness?
See! you accept such one wise man, myself:
Wiser or less wise, still I operate
From my own stock of wisdom, nor exact
Of other sort of natures you admire.
That whoso rhymes a sonnet pays a tax,
Who paints a landscape dips brush at his cost,
Who scores a septett true for strings and wind
Mulcted must be — else how should I impose
Properly, attitudinize aright,
Did such conflicting claims as these divert
Hohenstiel-Schwangau from observing me?
Therefore, what I find facile, you be sure,
With effort or without it, you shall dare —
You, I aspire to make my better self
And truly the Great Nation. No more war
For war's sake, then! and, — seeing, wickedness
Springs out of folly, — no more foolish dread
O' the neighbour waxing too inordinate
A rival, through his gain of wealth and ease!
What? — keep me patient, Powers! — the people here,
Earth presses to her heart, nor owns a pride
Above her pride i' the race all flame and air
And aspiration to the boundless Great,
The incommensurably Beautiful —
Whose very faulterings groundward come of flight
Urged by a pinion all too passionate
For heaven and what it holds of gloom and glow:
Bravest of thinkers, bravest of the brave
Doers, exalt in Science, rapturous
In Art, the — more than all — magnetic race
To fascinate their fellows, mould mankind
Hohenstiel-Schwangau-fashion, — these, what? — these
Will have to abdicate their primacy
Should such a nation sell them steel untaxed,
And such another take itself, on hire
For the natural sen'night, somebody for lord
Unpatronized by me whose back was turned?
Or such another yet would fain build bridge,
Lay rail, drive tunnel, busy its poor self
With its appropriate fancy: so there's — flash —
Hohenstiel-Schwangau up in arms at once!
Genius has somewhat of the infantine:
But of the childish, not a touch nor taint
Except through self-will, which, being foolishness,
Is certain, soon or late, of punishment.
Which Providence avert! — and that it may
Avert what both of us would so deserve.
No foolish dread o' the neighbour, I enjoin!
By consequence, no wicked war with him,
While I rule!

Does that mean — no war at all
When just the wickedness I here proscribe
Comes, haply, from the neighbour? Does my speech
Precede the praying that you beat the sword
To plough-share, and the spear to pruning-hook.
And sit down henceforth under your own vine
And fig-tree through the sleepy summer month,
Letting what hurly-burly please explode
On the other side the mountain-frontier? No,
Beloved! I foresee and I announce
Necessity of warfare in one case,
For one cause: one way, I bid broach the blood
O' the world. For truth and right, and only right
And truth, — right, truth, on the absolute scale of God,
No pettiness of man's admeasurement, —
In such case only, and for such one cause,
Fight your hearts out, whatever fate betide
Hands energetic to the uttermost!
Lie not! Endure no lie which needs your heart
And hand to push it out of mankind's path —
No lie that lets the natural forces work
Too long ere lay it plain and pulverized —
Seeing man's life lasts only twenty years!
And such a lie, before both man and God,
Being, at this time present, Austria's rule
O'er Italy, — for Austria's sake the first,
Italy's next, and our sake last of all.
Come with me and deliver Italy!
Smite hip and thigh until the oppressor leave
Free from the Adriatic to the Alps
The oppressed one! We were they who laid her low
In the old bad day when Villany braved Truth
And Right, and laughed 'Henceforward, God deposed,
The Devil is to rule for evermore
I' the world!' — whereof to stop the consequence,
And for atonement of false glory there
Gaped at and gabbled over by the world,
We purpose to get God enthroned again
For what the world will gird at as sheer shame
I' the cost of blood and treasure. 'All for naught —
Not even, say, some patch of province, splice
O' the frontier? — some snug honorarium-fee
Shut into glove and pocketed apace?'
(Questions Sagacity) 'in deference
To the natural susceptibility
Of folks at home, unwitting of that pitch
You soar to, and misdoubting if Truth, Right
And the other such augustnesses repay
Expenditure in coin o' the realm, — but prompt
To recognize the cession of Savoy
And Nice as marketable value!' No,
Sagacity, go preach to Metternich,
And, sermon ended, stay where he resides I
Hohenstiel-Schwangau, you and I must march
The other road! war for the hate of war,
Not love, this once!" So Italy was free.

What else noteworthy and commendable
I' the man's career? — that he was resolute
No trepidation, much less treachery
On his part, should imperil from its poise
The ball o' the world, heaved up at such expense
Of pains so far, and ready to rebound,
Let but a finger maladroitly fall,
Under pretence of making fast and sure
The inch gained by late volubility,
And run itself back to the ancient rest
At foot o' the mountain. Thus he ruled, gave proof
The world had gained a point, progressive so,
By choice, this time, as will and power concurred,
0' the fittest man to rule; not chance of birth,
Or such-like dice-throw. Oft Sagacity
Was at his ear: "Confirm this clear advance,
Support this wise procedure! You, elect
O' the people, mean to justify their choice
And out-king all the kingly imbeciles;
But that's just half the enterprise: remains
You find them a successor like yourself,
In head and heart and eye and hand and aim,
Or all done's undone; and whom hope to mould
So like you as the pupil Nature sends,
The son and heir's completeness which you lack?
Lack it no longer! Wed the pick o' the world,
Where'er you think you find it. Should she be
A queen, — tell Hohenstielers-Schwangauese
'So do the old enthroned decrepitudes
Acknowledge, in the rotten hearts of them,
Their knell is knolled, they hasten to make peace
With the new order, recognize in me
Your right to constitute what king you will.
Cringe therefore crown in hand and bride on arm,
To both of us: we triumph, I suppose!'
Is it the other sort of rank? — bright eye,
Soft smile, and so forth, all her queenly boast?
Undaunted the exordium — 'I, the man
O' the people, with the people mate myself:
So stand, so fall. Kings, keep your crowns and brides!
Our progeny (if Providence agree)
Shall live to tread the baubles underfoot
And bid the scarecrows consort with their kin.
For son, as for his sire, be the free wife
In the free state!' "

That is. Sagacity
Would prop up one more lie, the most of all
Pernicious fancy that the son and heir
Receives the genius from the sire, himself
Transmits as surely, — ask experience else!
Which answers, — never was so plain a truth
As that God drops his seed of heavenly flame
Just where He wills on earth: sometimes where man
Seems to tempt — such the accumulated store
Of faculties — one spark to fire the heap;
Sometimes where, fire-ball-like, it falls upon
The naked unpreparedness of rock,
Burns, beaconing the nations through their night.
Faculties, fuel for the flame? All helps
Come, ought to come, or come not, crossed by chance,
From culture and transmission. What's your want
I' the son and heir? Sympathy, aptitude.
Teachableness, the fuel for the flame?
You'll have them for your pains: but the flame's self,
The novel thought of God shall light the world?
No, poet, though your offspring rhyme and chime
I' the cradle, — painter, no, for all your pet
Draws his first eye, beats Salvatore's boy, —
And thrice no, statesman, should your progeny
Tie bib and tucker with no tape but red,
And make a foolscap-kite of protocols!
Critic and copyist and bureaucrat
To heart's content! The seed o' the apple-tree
Brings forth another tree which bears a crab:
'T is the great gardener grafts the excellence
On wildings where he will.

"How plain I view,
Across those misty years 'twixt me and Rome " —
(Such the man's answer to Sagacity)
The little wayside temple, halfway down
To a mild river that makes oxen white
Miraculously, un-mouse-colours hide,
Or so the Roman country people dream!
I view that sweet small shrub-embedded shrine
On the declivity, was sacred once
To a transmuting Genius of the land,
Could touch and turn its dunnest natures bright,
— Since Italy means the Land of the Ox, we know.
Well, how was it the due succession fell
From priest to priest who ministered i' the cool
Calm fane o' the Clitumnian god? The sire
Brought forth a son and sacerdotal sprout,
Endowed instinctively with good and grace
To suit the gliding gentleness below —
Did he? Tradition tells another tale.
Each priest obtained his predecessor's staff,

Robe, fillet and insignia, blamelessly.
By springing out of ambush, soon or late.
And slaying him: the initiative rite
Simply was murder, save that murder took,
I' the case, another and religious name.
So it was once, is now, shall ever be
With genius and its priesthood in this world:
The new power slays the old — but handsomely.
There he lies, not diminished by an inch
Of stature that he graced the altar with.
Though somebody of other bulk and build
Cries 'What a goodly personage lies here
Reddening the water where the bulrush roots!
May I conduct the service in his place.
Decently and in order, as did he,
And, as he did not, keep a wary watch
When meditating 'neath a willow shade!'
Find out your best man, sure the son of him,
Will prove best man again, and, better still
Somehow than best, the grandson-prodigy!
You think the world would last another day
Did we so make us masters of the trick
Whereby the works go, we could pre-arrange
Their play and reach perfection when we please?
Depend on it, the change and the surprise
Are part o' the plan: 't is we wish steadiness;
Nature prefers a motion by unrest,
Advancement through this force that jostles that.
And so, since much remains i' the world to see.
Here is it still, affording God the sight."
Thus did the man refute Sagacity,
Ever at this one whisper in his ear:
"Here are you picked out, by a miracle,
And placed conspicuously enough, folks say
And you believe, by Providence outright
Taking a new way — nor without success —
To put the world upon its mettle: good!
But Fortune alternates with Providence;
Resource is soon exhausted. Never count
On such a happy hit occurring twice!
Try the old method next time!"

"Old enough,"
(At whisper in his ear, the laugh outbroke)
"And most discredited of all the modes
By just the men and women who make boast
They are kings and queens thereby! Mere self-defence
Should teach them, on one chapter of the law
Must be no sort of trifling — chastity:
They stand or fall, as their progenitors
Were chaste or unchaste. Now, run eye around
My crowned acquaintance, give each life its look
And no more, — why, you'd think each life was led
Purposely for example of what pains
Who leads it took to cure the prejudice.
And prove there's nothing so unproveable
As who is who, what son of what a sire,
And, — inferentially, — how faint the chance
That the next generation needs to fear
Another fool o' the selfsame type as he
Happily regnant now by right divine
And luck o' the pillow! No: select your lord
By the direct employment of your brains
As best you may, — bad as the blunder prove,
A far worse evil stank beneath the sun
When some legitimate blockhead managed so
Matters that high time was to interfere,
Though interference came from hell itself
And not the blind mad miserable mob
Happily ruled so long by pillow-luck
And divine right, — by lies in short, not truth.
And meanwhile use the allotted minute . . . "

One, —
Two, three, four, five — yes, five the pendule warns!
Eh? Why, this wild work wanders past all bound
And bearing! Exile, Leicester-square, the life
I' the old gay miserable time, rehearsed,
Tried on again like cast clothes, still to serve
At a pinch, perhaps? "Who's who?" was aptly asked,
Since certainly I am not I! since when?
Where is the bud-mouthed arbitress? A nod
Out-Homering Homer! Stay — there flits the clue
I fain would find the end of! Yes, — "Meanwhile,
Use the allotted minute!" Well, you see,
(Veracious and imaginary Thiers,
Who map out thus the life I might have led,
But did not, — all the worse for earth and me —
Doff spectacles, wipe pen, shut book, decamp!)
You see 't is easy in heroics! Plain
Pedestrian speech shall help me perorate.
Ah, if one had no need to use the tongue!
How obvious and how easy 't is to talk
Inside the soul, a ghostly dialogue —
Instincts with guesses, — instinct, guess, again
With dubious knowledge, half-experience: each
And all the interlocutors alike
Subordinating, — as decorum bids,
Oh, never fear! but still decisively, —
Claims from without that take too high a tone,
— ("God wills this, man wants that, the dignity
Prescribed a prince would wish the other thing") —
Putting them back to insignificance
Beside one intimatest fact — myself
Am first to be considered, since I live
Twenty years longer and then end, perhaps!
But, where one ceases to soliloquize,
Somehow the motives, that did well enough
I' the darkness, when you bring them into light
Are found, like those famed cave-fish, to lack eye
And organ for the upper magnitudes.
The other common creatures, of less fine
Existence, that acknowledge earth and heaven,
Have it their own way in the argument.
Yes, forced to speak, one stoops to say — one's aim
Was — what it peradventure should have been; —
To renovate a people, mend or end
That bane come of a blessing meant the world —
Inordinate culture of the sense made quick
By soul, — the lust o' the flesh, lust of the eye,
And pride of life, — and, consequent on these,
The worship of that prince o' the power o' the air
Who paints the cloud and fills the emptiness
And bids his votaries, famishing for truth.
Feed on a lie.

Alack, one lies oneself
Even in the stating that one's end was truth,
Truth only, if one states as much in words!
Give me the inner chamber of the soul
For obvious easy argument! 't is there
One pits the silent truth against a lie —
Truth which breaks shell a careless simple bird,
Nor wants a gorget nor a beak filed fine,
Steel spurs and the whole armoury o' the tongue,
To equalize the odds. But, do your best,
Words have to come: and somehow words deflect
As the best cannon ever rifled will.

"Deflect" indeed! nor merely words from thoughts
But names from facts: "Clitumnus" did I say?
As if it had been his ox-whitening wave
Whereby folk practised that grim cult of old —
The murder of their temple's priest by who
Would qualify for his succession. Sure —
Nemi was the true lake's style. Dream had need
Of the ox-whitening piece of prettiness
And so confused names, well known once awake.

So, i' the Residenz yet, not Leicester-square,
Alone, — no such congenial intercourse! —
My reverie concludes, as dreaming should,
With daybreak: nothing done and over yet,
Except cigars! The adventure thus may be,
Or never needs to be at all: who knows?
My Cousin-Duke, perhaps, at whose hard head
— Is it, now — is this letter to be launched,
The sight of whose grey oblong, whose grim seal,
Set all these fancies floating for an hour?

Twenty years are good gain, come what come will!
Double or quits! The letter goes! Or stays?

poem by Robert Browning (1871)
Added by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Every one carries his own skin to the market.

Hungarian proverbs
Added by Lucian Velea
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Every chemical reaction has a transition state.

quote by Derek Harold Richard Barton
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Every Breath

With every breath I take
I am one step closer to
THE LORD

poem by David Kush
Added by Poetry Lover
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Every Step

With every step I take towards the Lord
He takes two to me!

poem by David Kush
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With every gust of wind

With every gust of wind,
the butterfly changes its place
on the willow.

poem by Matsuo Basho
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In other words, Social Security is every bit as insecure as the stock market.

quote by Tony Snow
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Historically, there has been a bull market in commodities every 20 or 30 years.

quote by Jim Rogers
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Every Poem Is Another Effort

EVERY POEM IS ANOTHER EFFORT

Every poem is another effort
To make the Unknown-
Smile.

poem by Shalom Freedman
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A Poem For Every Good Man

A poem for every good man
That serves God
And treats everyone with respect and dignity

poem by Aldo Kraas
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Every Dream Has Its Shot By Daylight

Dream
Dream
Dream all day
Dream all night
But every shot
has its chance but daylight.

poem by Broken Heart3
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