Nothing yet-was ever done
Till it was done again,
And no man was ever one
Except through dead men.
I could neither rise nor fall
But that Adam fell.
Had he fallen once for all
There’d be nothing to tell.
Unless in me my fathers live
I can never show
I am myself—ignorant if
I’m a ghost or no.
Father Adam and Mother Eve,
Make this pact with me:
Teach me, teach me to believe,
For to believe’s to be.
Many a woman since Eve was made
Has seen the world is young,
Many and many a time obeyed
The legend-making tongue.
Abolish the ancient custom—who
Would mark Eve on her shelf?
Even a story to be true
Must repeat itself.
Yet we the latest born are still
The first ones and the last,
And in our little measures fill
The oceanic past.
For first and last is every way,
And first and last each soul,
And first and last the passing day,
And first and last the goal.