XXX
Chaos, thou crown’d decree that orders all,
Before all names, before all measured law,
Where gilded lies and borrowed masks must fall,
And hollow vows dissolve in naked awe.
Thou break’st the glass of forms that feign to stand,
And strip’st the tongue that learned deceitful art;
No painted virtue stays beneath thy hand,
No cloaked intent survives thy searching heart.

From thy dark womb our breathing first was drawn,
Unshap’d, yet true, before all praise or blame;
And when the weary self is overthrown,
To thee it turns, not lost, but born the same.
O Chaos, end of lie and source of flame,
In thee we rise, in thee begin again.
XXX