Imperturbable as a rock or wood
To the swirling maelstrom of the universe.
Nodding in ionic metronic,
Unnatural secure hypnotic.
Photons pass through live hands and eyes
Oh! what wonders when we've aged and died.

Learn-ed numb professor can
you feel or learn or do or plan?
Pyramidal fortunes thrust
merely from a distant touch.
Longing for thee Ever Clear
To know the Universe is real;
not the echo of a blow
against the flesh. That's what we know.

I grow old ... I grow old ... I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled. Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach? I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach. I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me. I have seen them riding seaward on the waves Combing the white hair of the waves blown back When the wind blows the water white and black. We have lingered in the chambers of the sea By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown Till human voices wake us, and we drown.