To the archangels and the fiery seed Of mad Prometheus, fighting gods for men, And heaven for earth, this greeting: I led you once, I taught you, am the sire Of hosts of you, but fellow to you all. And when I fell, was chained upon this bed By adamantine sickness, then I lay And had you in my thought hour after hour, Day after day, and saw you in dreams by night Still fighting, bleeding, caring for the fallen, Or objurgating heaven for the curse It sheds on men, or arming for the fray With steel of resisting thought; and so the sense Of my responsibility has weighed Upon me as my night has deftly dawned To something clearer than the soul you knew, Who led you once, with breath of iron horns, Called to you: Charge! there is the trench of greed! Avenge the poor! bring justice! purge the state Of fraud! And so I lay and thought of you Still guarding the old lines, fighting the old fights, While I was changed, was not your leader now, Cared no more for your battles, save as strife That leads up higher, for upon my wall I woke to see these words: He only wins His freedom and existence who each day Conquers them newly. How can I tell you What has come over me? You walk through galleries, Devour the pictures in the different rooms, Then gaze about you where you stand at last Amid supernal canvases of light. Try to recall the pictures you have studied, What you have seen has helped you to perceive The final beauties, but is blurred in mind, It has been lived, has lost its vital power, Is not the sovereign moment. Climb a mountain The whole day through, and at the time of stars Stand on a peak and search infinity! You have forgot the valleys, save perhaps The torment of the flies of which you’re freed In these cool heights. So age cannot recall The thrill and intimate complexities That made the thought of youth. A sickness comes: One has been metamorphosed, cannot live The old emotions, habits, old delights. And as for that we change each day and all Our yesterdays are chrysalises whence We crawled to what we are. In short, archangels, I have become another soul. Now listen: