So I loved and died, and the ages sped
Till the time of my second birth;
When I took my place in the cosmic race,
And again came down to earth.
Once more we met. Ah, Love, not yet!
You were far above my state!
For how could I raise my mollusc gaze
To a virtuous vertebrate?
Again we died, and again we slept,
And again we came to be—
I as an anthropoidal ape,
And you as a chimpanzee.
You as a charming chimpanzee,
With a high patrician air;
And I watched you waltz from tree to tree
As I slunk in my lowly lair.
And yet again, in an age or so,
We met, and I mind the sob
I sobbed when I found that I was—what?
And you were a thingumbob.
You had sold your tail for a kind of soul,
You had grown two thumbs beside;
And I knew again that my love was vain,
So I went to the woods and died.
