They were married, you see. The clasp on this gutta percha case Locks them together. They were locked together in life. And a hasp of brass Keeps their shadows face to face in the case Which has been handed down-- (The pictures of noble ancestors, Showing what strains of gentle blood Flow in the third generation)-- From Massachusetts to Illinois. ... Long ago it was over for them, Massachusetts has done its part, She raised the seed And a wind blew it over to Illinois Where it has mixed, multiplied, mutated Until one soul comes forth: But a soul all striped and streaked, And a soul self-crossed and self-opposed, As it were a tree which on one branch Bears northern spies, And on another thorn apples. ... Come Weissmann, Von Baer and Schleiden, And you Buffon and De Vries, Come with your secrets of sea shore asters Night-shade, henbanes, gloxinias, Veronicas, snap-dragons, Danebrog, And show us how they cross and change, And become hybrids. And show us what heredity is, And how it works. For the secret of these human beings Locked in this gutta percha case Is the secret of Mephistos and red Campions. Let us lay out the facts as far as we can. Her eyes were black, His eyes were blue. She saw through shadows, walls and doors, She knew life and hungered for more. But he lived in the mists, and climbed to high places To feel clouds about his face, and get the lights Of supernal sun-sets. She was reason, and he was faith. She had an illumination, but of the intellect. And he had an illumination but of the soul. And she saw God as merciless law, And he knew God as divine love. And she was a man, and he in part was a woman. He stood in a pulpit and preached the Christ, And the remission of sins by blood, And the literal fall of man through Adam, And the mystical and actual salvation of man Through the coming of Christ.