[Lyric] Seven Sonnets II (Arthur Hugh Clough)

That there are better things within the womb
Of Nature than to our unworthy view
She grants for a possession, may be true:
The cycle of the birthplace and the tomb
Fulfils at least the order and the doom
Of her, that has not ordinance to do
More than to withdraw and to renew,
To show one moment and the next resume:
The law that we return from whence we came
May for the flowers, beasts, and most men remain;
If for ourselves, we [ask] not nor complain:
But for a being that demands the name
We highest deem--a Person and a Soul
It troubles us if this should be the whole.