And, with a shamed and crimson cheek,

Moaned "This is harder than Bezique!"
But when she asked him "Wherefore so?"

He felt his very whiskers glow,
And frankly owned "I do not know."

While, like broad waves of golden grain,
Or sunlit hues on cloistered pane,

His colour came and went again.
Pitying his obvious distress,

Yet with a tinge of bitterness,
She said "The More exceeds the Less."

"A truth of such undoubted weight,"
He urged, "and so extreme in date,

It were superfluous to state."
Roused into sudden passion, she

In tone of cold malignity:
"To others, yea: but not to thee."

But when she saw him quail and quake,
And when he urged "For pity's sake!"

Once more in gentle tones she spake.
"Thought in the mind doth still abide

That is by Intellect supplied,
And within that Idea doth hide:

"And he, that yearns the truth to know,
Still further inwardly may go,

And find Idea from Notion flow:
"And thus the chain, that sages sought,

Is to a gloriouscircle wrought,
For Notion hath its source in Thought."

So passed they on with even pace:
Yet gradually one might trace

A shadow growing on his face.
The Second Voice

THEY walked beside the wave-worn beach;
Her tongue was very apt to teach,

And now and then he did beseech
She would abate her dulcet tone,

Because the talk was all her own,
And he was dull as any drone.

She urged "No cheese is made of chalk":
And ceaseless flowed her dreary talk,

Tuned to the footfall of a walk.
Her voice was very full and rich,

And, when at length she asked him "Which?"
It mounted to its highest pitch.

He a bewildered answer gave,
Drowned in the sullen moaning wave,

Lost in the echoes of the cave.
He answered her he knew not what:

Like shaft from bow at random shot,
He spoke, but she regarded not.

She waited not for his reply,
But with a downward leaden eye

Went on as if he were not by
Sound argument and grave defence,

Strange questions raised on "Why?" and "Whence?"
And wildly tangled evidence.

When he, with racked and whirling brain,
Feebly implored her to explain,

She simply said it all again.
Wrenched with an agony intense,

He spake, neglecting Sound and Sense,
And careless of all consequence:

"Mind - I believe - is Essence - Ent -
Abstract - that is - an Accident -

Which we - that is to say - I meant - "
When, with quick breath and cheeks all flushed,

At length his speech was somewhat hushed,
She looked at him, and he was crushed.

It needed not her calm reply:
She fixed him with a stony eye,

And he could neither fight nor fly.
While she dissected, word by word,

His speech, half guessed at and half heard,
As might a cat a little bird.

Then, having wholly overthrown
His views, and stripped them to the bone,

Proceeded to unfold her own.
"Shall Man be Man? And shall he miss

Of other thoughts no thought but this,
Harmonious dews of sober bliss?

"What boots it? Shall his fevered eye
Through towering nothingness descry

The grisly phantom hurry by?
"And hear dumb shrieks that fill the air;

See mouths that gape, and eyes that stare
And redden in the dusky glare?

"The meadows breathing amber light,
The darkness toppling from the height,

The feathery train of granite Night?
"Shall he, grown gray among his peers,

Through the thick curtain of his tears
Catch glimpses of his earlier years,

"And hear the sounds he knew of yore,
Old shufflings on the sanded floor,

Old knuckles tapping at the door?
"Yet still before him as he flies

One pallid form shall ever rise,
And, bodying forth in glassy eyes

"The vision of a vanished good,
Low peering through the tangled wood,

Shall freeze the current of his blood."
Still from each fact, with skill uncouth

And savagerapture, like a tooth
She wrenched some slow reluctant truth.

Till, like a silent water-mill,
When summer suns have dried the rill,

She reached a full stop, and was still.
Dead calm succeeded to the fuss,

As when the loaded omnibus
Has reached the railway terminus:

When, for the tumult of the street,
Is heard the engine's stifled beat,

The velvet tread of porters' feet.
With glance that ever sought the ground,

She moved her lips without a sound,
And every now and then she frowned.

He gazed upon the sleeping sea,
And joyed in its tranquillity,

And in that silence dead, but she
To muse a little space did seem,

Then, like the echo of a dream,
Harked back upon her threadbare theme.

Still an attentive ear he lent
But could not fathom what she meant:

She was not deep, nor eloquent.
He marked the ripple on the sand:

The even swaying of her hand
Was all that he could understand.

He saw in dreams a drawing-room,
Where thirteen wretches sat in gloom,

Waiting - he thought he knew for whom:
He saw them drooping here and there,

Each feebly huddled on a chair,
In attitudes of blank despair:

Oysters were not more mute than they,
For all their brains were pumped away,

And they had nothing more to say -
Save one, who groaned "Three hours are gone!"

Who shrieked "We'll wait no longer, John!
Tell them to set the dinner on!"

The vision passed: the ghosts were fled:
He saw once more that woman dread:

He heard once more the words she said.
He left her, and he turned aside:

He sat and watched the coming tide
Across the shores so newly dried.

He wondered at the waters clear,
The breeze that whispered in his ear,

The billows heaving far and near,
And why he had so long preferred

To hang upon her every word:
"In truth," he said, "it was absurd."

The Third Voice
NOT long this transport held its place:

Within a little moment's space
Quick tears were raining down his face

His heart stood still, aghast with fear;
A wordless voice, nor far nor near,

He seemed to hear and not to hear.
"Tears kindle not the doubtful spark.

If so, why not? Of this remark
The bearings are profoundly dark."

"Her speech," he said, "hath caused this pain.
Easier I count it to explain

The jargon of the howling main,
"Or, stretched beside some babbling brook,

To con, with inexpressive look,
An unintelligible book."

Low spake the voice within his head,
In words imagined more than said,

Soundless as ghost's intended tread:
"If thou art duller than before,

Why quittedst thou the voice of lore?
Why not endure, expecting more?"

"Rather than that," he groaned aghast,
"I'd writhe in depths of cavern vast,

Some loathly vampire's rich repast."
"'Twere hard," it answered, "themes immense

To coop within the narrow fence
That rings THY scant intelligence."

"Not so," he urged, "nor once alone:
But there was something in her tone

That chilled me to the very bone.
"Her style was anything but clear,

And most unpleasantly severe;
Her epithets were very queer.

"And yet, so grand were her replies,
I could not choose but deem her wise;

I did not dare to criticise;
"Nor did I leave her, till she went

So deep in tangled argument
That all my powers of thought were spent."

A little whisper inly slid,
"Yet truth is truth: you know you did."

A little wink beneath the lid.
And, sickened with excess of dread,

Prone to the dust he bent his head,
And lay like one three-quarters dead

The whisper left him - like a breeze
Lost in the depths of leafy trees -

• frankly [´fræŋkli] ad.直率地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
• obvious [´ɔbviəs] a.明显的；显而易见的 (初中英语单词)
• extreme [ik´stri:m] a.尽头的 n.极端 (初中英语单词)
• passion [´pæʃən] n.激情；激怒；恋爱 (初中英语单词)
• glorious [´glɔ:riəs] a.光荣的；辉煌的 (初中英语单词)
• circle [´sə:kəl] n.圆圈 v.环绕；盘旋 (初中英语单词)
• cheese [tʃi:z] n.干酪，乳酪 (初中英语单词)
• argument [´ɑ:gjumənt] n.辩论；争论；论证 (初中英语单词)
• careless [´keəlis] a.粗心的；草率的 (初中英语单词)
• breath [breθ] n.呼吸；气息 (初中英语单词)
• wholly [´həul-li] ad.完全，十足；统统 (初中英语单词)
• vision [´viʒən] n.视觉；想象力；幻影 (初中英语单词)
• freeze [fri:z] v.结冰；凝固；冷淡 (初中英语单词)
• savage [´sævidʒ] a.野蛮的 n.蛮人 (初中英语单词)
• velvet [´velvit] n.&a.天鹅绒(般的) (初中英语单词)
• sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
• attentive [ə´tentiv] a.注意的；殷勤的 (初中英语单词)
• breeze [bri:z] n.微风；不费力的事 (初中英语单词)
• transport [træn´spɔ:t] n.运输；流放 (初中英语单词)
• endure [in´djuə] vt.忍耐，忍受；坚持 (初中英语单词)
• whisper [´wispə] v.耳语 n.低语；沙沙声 (初中英语单词)
• excess [´ekses] n.超过 a.过分的 (初中英语单词)
• crimson [´krimzən] a.&n.深(紫)红(的) (高中英语单词)
• dreary [´driəri] a.阴郁的；枯燥无味的 (高中英语单词)
• sullen [´sʌlən] a.不高兴的 (高中英语单词)
• random [´rændəm] n.偶然的行动 (高中英语单词)
• downward [´daunwəd] a.下降的，向下的 (高中英语单词)
• granite [´grænit] n.花岗岩 (高中英语单词)
• rapture [´ræptʃə] n.着迷；全神贯注 (高中英语单词)
• tumult [´tju:mʌlt, ´tu:-] n.喧哗；激昂；烦乱 (高中英语单词)
• ripple [´ripəl] n.涟漪 v.(使)起涟漪 (高中英语单词)
• kindle [´kindl] v.点燃；(使)激动 (高中英语单词)
• doubtful [´dautful] a.怀疑的，可疑的 (高中英语单词)
• cavern [´kævən] n.大山洞；大岩洞 (高中英语单词)
• superfluous [su:´pə:fluəs, sju:-] a.过剩的，多余的 (英语四级单词)
• intellect [´intilekt] n.智力；有才智的人 (英语四级单词)
• essence [´esəns] n.本质；要素；精华 (英语四级单词)
• unfold [ʌn´fəuld] v.展开；显露，表明 (英语四级单词)
• towering [´tauəriŋ] a.高耸的；强烈的 (英语四级单词)
• reluctant [ri´lʌktənt] a.勉强的；难得到的 (英语四级单词)
• fathom [´fæðəm] n.英寻 vt.推测，揣摩 (英语四级单词)
• feebly [´fi:bli] ad.虚弱地；贫乏地 (英语四级单词)
• profoundly [prə´faundli] ad.深深地 (英语四级单词)
• writhe [raið] v.扭曲，扭歪 (英语四级单词)
• inwardly [´inwədli] ad.内向；独自地 (英语六级单词)
• ceaseless [´si:slis] a.不绝的，不停的 (英语六级单词)
• phantom [´fæntəm] n.幽灵；幻影 a.幻想的 (英语六级单词)
• redden [´redn] v.(使)变红；脸红 (英语六级单词)
• glassy [´glɑ:si] a.光滑的；无神的 (英语六级单词)
• aghast [ə´gɑ:st] a.吓呆的，吃惊的 (英语六级单词)