What are we first? First, animals; and next <br />Intelligences at a leap; on whom <br />Pale lies the distant shadow of the tomb, <br />And all that draweth on the tomb for text. <br />Into which state comes Love, the crowning sun: <br />Beneath whose light the shadow loses form. <br />We are the lords of life, and life is warm. <br />Intelligence and instinct now are one. <br />But nature says: 'My children most they seem <br />When they least know me: therefore I decree <br />That they shall suffer.' Swift doth young Love flee, <br />And we stand wakened, shivering from our dream. <br />Then if we study Nature we are wise. <br />Thus do the few who live but with the day: <br />The scientific animals are they. <br />Lady, this is my sonnet to your eyes.<br /><br />George Meredith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/modern-love-xxx-what-are-we-first/
