Synopsis

``Powers, erst of heaven; and, haply, yet again, As, with the years, we wiser, mightier grow, Thither, triumphant, destined to return;-- Not by permission; but in our own right, And strength resistless: for, our past estate, Our present, ponder; and thence clearly see The inevitable future. How at first To being came we,--who shall say! Time was When we were not;--or, if at all we were, Unconscious, embryotic,--or, perchance, In dream, ed not. Ye have seen, on earth, The corn--grain, coffined with the human dead, Through ages long lie death--like: yet, to soil, Air, rain, and light brought forth,--behold, the germ Stirs in its husk,--the seeming dead shows life: Expands,--bursts,--shoots out stem,--leaf,--flower, and