<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">Mastery</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line">WITH little learning—hardly more</p><p class="line">Than bids me envy others' lore—</p><p class="line">Great faith have I in laws of song,</p><p class="line">In truths of lyric right and wrong,</p><p class="line">As seen from the Acropolis!</p><p class="line">As seen in times that unto this</p><p class="line">Were what the woof of radiant air</p><p class="line">Cephissus and Ilissus wear</p><p class="line">Is to the marsh-bred murk unclean</p><p class="line">That drapes the uncleaner Thames;—as seen</p><p class="line">By those who knew how vain is mere</p><p class="line">Delirious clutch at star and sphere,</p><p class="line">And taught not that Intention high</p><p class="line">Lifts Unachievement to the sky,</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Or that to fail can e'er be great;</p><p class="line">Who had scant tears for Marsyas' fate;</p><p class="line">And wasted not their strength of wing</p><p class="line">In desperately challenging</p><p class="line">Battlements inaccessible</p><p class="line">As the eyrie whence Hephaestus fell.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">For the brave tourneys of the lyre</p><p class="line">Are won by prowess, not desire,</p><p class="line">And Art is capture, not pursuit,</p><p class="line">Capture and conquest absolute,</p><p class="line">Bliss of possession without bar,</p><p class="line">And they the trophied hunters are</p><p class="line">Who from their cloudless brows efface</p><p class="line">The last motes of the dust of chase,</p><p class="line">That Time may on their foreheads see</p><p class="line">Nought of the strife save Victory.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The steeds of Helios will obey</p><p class="line">None other than the lord of day.</p><p class="line">They bear, delighted, the command</p><p class="line">Of his inexorable hand;</p><p class="line">But if a meddler take the reins,</p><p class="line">They rear, they toss their flaming manes,</p><p class="line">Crash backward, or break loose anon,</p><p class="line">In boundless scorn of Phaethon.</p></div></body></html> · Great War