Of unworldly onyx! What is ripeness of soul
To the vinous opulence of material gain?
Eyes: Winepress late working, the bottomless cask
Can dim your eyes, demoralize,
Debase wit and character into a mask.
Ego: Such behaviour would be ripe for certification¹
If it weren’t the norm. All life’s possibilities
And prizes do I swop for self-fructification?
Eyes: Active go-getters fate likes best,
Mocks at possibilities, pushes the pushy,
Trips up those claiming fate as their conquest.
Ego: My eyes, gleaners of truths, bemoan
Troubles that never may come and you bind
Enthusiasm, soul of candour, with a millstone!
Eyes: Few are my gleanings, compared with yours,
But from eyes will fall the scales² you lay down
And freedom will paint what virtue draws.
Ego: What the eye admires, can the heart eschew?
Don’t you gaze at Brünnhildes³ and palatial homes?
Aren’t colour-supplement lives a revelation to you?
Eyes: You must use the knowledge your eyes impart
Of qualities, contradictories and vanities to sharpen
And review your experiences and sow prudence in your heart!
² a double entendre: scales, with which to weigh the true values of things, and the scales, as it were, that fell from the eyes of the greedy, religious hypocrite in St Paul’s account of his conversion.