Dear Bill: --/--/ I liked the poem from _The Bookman_--even, if as you say, you don’t attempt more than a play of words. Convictions of any sort are hard to maintain these days--and maybe Spengler is right. Have you read his _Untergang des Abendlandes_--now translated (Knopf)? I envy people like Wheeler Lovell--who have intensive work to do without having to wrestle with either angels or devils to continue with it. I get awfully exhausted sometimes, trying to achieve some kind of consistent vision of things. But I don’t seem to be able to relax--and knowing quite well all the time that most of my energy is wasted in a kind of inward combustion that is sheer nonsense. All else seems boresome, however,--so I must continue to kill myself in my own way. --/--/ 253: TO WALDO FRANK [_Isle of Pines_] _July 24, 1926_ Hail Brother! I feel an absolute music in the air again, and some tremendous rondure floating somewhere--perhaps my little dedication [“To Brooklyn Bridge”] is going to swing me back to San Cristobal again.... That little prelude, by the way, I think to be almost the best thing I’ve ever written, something steady and uncompromising about it. Do you notice how its construction parallels the peculiar technique of _space and detail division_ used by El Greco in several canvasses--notably the _Christus am Olberg_? I’ve just been struck by that while casually returning to my little monograph as I often do. And obscure as that heaven of the Jews Thy guerdon ... Accolade thou dost bestow Of anonymity time cannot raise; Vibrant reprieve and pardon thou dost show. Read the above between the 6th & 7th stanzas of the last I sent--and you have the poem complete. It’s done, and I won’t bother you with any more scraps.... The news of Allen Tate’s generosity refreshed me a great deal; truly beautiful of him. You must know by now, how little I credited the Light gossip; I simply thought you’d be interested in hearing the sort of thing that goes around. I don’t mean to say I sensed the ultimate facts as your enclosure establish them--but I have always known that your efforts were the _sine qua non_ in this situation ... your devotion and courage the sustaining factor. I shall not write Kahn for awhile, or if I do it will be in a different mood than you need to fear of. I sent Spengler to you registered, two weeks ago. Don’t know any exact date for the appearance of _White B’s_, the contract specifies only in “the fall of 1926”; November, perhaps. --/--/ 254: TO WALDO FRANK [_Isle of Pines_] _July 26th, ’26_