Canto CX

High wisdom holds my wisdom less,

      That I, who gaze with temperate eyes

      On glorious insufficiencies,

Set light by narrower perfectness.

But thou, that fillest all the room

      Of all my love, art reason why

      I seem to cast a careless eye

On souls, the lesser lords of doom.

For what wert thou? some novel power

      Sprang up for ever at a touch,

      And hope could never hope too much,

In watching thee from hour to hour,

Large elements in order brought,

      And tracts of calm from tempest made,

      And world-wide fluctuation sway'd

In vassal tides that followed thought.