I am a certain god Who slipped down from a remote height To a place of pools and stars. And I sat invisible Amid a clump of trees To watch the madmen. There were cries and groans about me, And shouts of laughter and curses. Figures passed by with self-absorbed contempt, Wrinkling in bitter smiles about their lips. Others hurried on with set eyes Pursuing something. Then I said this is the place for mad Frederick-- Mad Frederick will be here. But everywhere I could see Figures sitting or standing By little pools. Some seemed grown into the soil And were helpless. And of these some were asleep. Others laughed the laughter That comes from dying men Trying to face Death. And others said "I should be content," And others said "I will fly." Whereupon sepulchral voices muttered, As of creatures sitting or hanging head down From limbs of the trees, "We will not let you." And others looked in their pools And clasped hands and said "Gone, all gone." By other pools there were dead bodies: Some of youth, some of age. They had given up the fight, They had drunk poisoned water, They had searched Until they fell-- All had gone mad! Then I, a certain god, Curious to know What it is in pools and stars That drives men and women Over the earth in this quest Waited for mad Frederick. And then I heard his step. I knew that long ago He sat by one of these pools Enraptured of a star's image. And that hands, for his own good, As they said, Dumped clay into the pool And blotted his star. And I knew that after that He had said, "They will never spy again Upon my ecstasy. They will never see me watching one star. I will fly by rivers, And by little brooks, And by the edge of lakes, And by little bends of water, Where no wind blows, And glance at stars as I pass. They will never spy again Upon my ecstasy." And I knew that mad Frederick In this flight Through years of restless and madness Was caught by the image of a star In a mere beyond a meadow Down from a hill, under a forest, And had said, "No one sees; Here I can find life, Through vision of eternal things." But they had followed him. They stood on the brow of the hill, And when they saw him gazing in the water They rolled a great stone down the hill, And shattered the star's image. Then mad Frederick fled with laughter. It echoed through the wood. And he said, "I will look for moons, I will punish them who disturb me, By worshiping moons." But when he sought moons They left him alone, And he did not want the moons. And he was alone, and sick from the moons, And covered as with a white blankness, Which was the worst madness of all.