Lxiv

"That rise into the true out of the false--explain?" May an example serve? In yonder bay I bathed, This sunny morning: swam my best, then hung, half swathed With chill, and half with warmth, i' the channel's midmost deep: You know how one--not treads, but stands in water? Keep Body and limbs below, hold head back, uplift chin, And, for the rest, leave care! If brow, eyes, mouth, should win Their freedom,--excellent! If they must brook the surge, No matter though they sink, let but the nose emerge. So, all of me in brine lay soaking: did I care One jot? I kept alive by man's due breath of air I' the nostrils, high and dry. At times, o'er these would run The ripple, even wash the wavelet,--morning's sun Tempted advance, no doubt: and always flash of froth, Fish-outbreak, bubbling by, would find me nothing loth To rise and look around; then all was overswept With dark and death at once. But trust the old adept! Back went again the head, a merest motion made, Fin-fashion, either hand, and nostril soon conveyed Assurance light and life were still in reach as erst: Always the last and--wait and watch--sometimes the first. Try to ascend breast-high? wave arms wide free of tether? Be in the air and leave the water altogether? Under went all again, till I resigned myself To only breathe the air, that 's footed by an elf, And only swim the water, that 's native to a fish. But there is no denying that, ere I curbed my wish, And schooled my restive arms, salt entered mouth and eyes Often enough--sun, sky, and air so tantalize! Still, the adept swims, this accorded, that denied; Can always breathe, sometimes see and be satisfied!