If could truly know that I do know

This, and the foreshower of this show,

Who is myself, for plot and scene are mine,

They say, and the world my sign,

Man, earth and heaven, co-patterned so or so—

If I could know.

If I could swear that I do truly see

The real world, and all itself and free,

Not prisoned in my shallow sight’s confine,

Nor mine, but to be mine,

Freely sometime to come and be with me—

If I could see.

If I could tell that I do truly hear

A music, not this tumult in my ear

Of all that cries in the world, confused or fine;

If there were staff and sign

Pitched high above the battle of hope and fear—

If I could hear.

Make me to see and hear that I may know

This journey and the place towards which I go;

For a beginning and an end are mine

Surely, and have their sign

Which I and all in the earth and the heavens show.

Teach me to know.