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Culture's garland

Humanity.

Reading edition

The big-eyed baby, just across the way,

Longs for the moon, and reaches out to clasp it:

He lunges at the crescent, cold and gray,

And waxes wroth to find he cannot grasp it.

Be hushed, O babe! and give thy grief a rest.

Better, a thousand times, for thee to ponder

Upon the lacteal wealth of mother’s breast,

Than reach for that vain milky way up yonder.

Yet am I like this man of recent birth

That lets a foolish disappointment fret it—

Scorning the sky, I’m reaching for the earth,

And grunt and groan because I do not get it.

92

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