by Yvor Winters
I, who taught Achilles, saw
Leap beyond me by its law,
By intrinsic law destroyed,
Genius in itself alloyed.
Dying scholar, dim with fact,
By the stallion body wracked,
Studying my long defeat,
I have mastered Jove's deceit.
Now my head is bald and dried,
Past division simplified:
On the edge of naught I wait,
Magnitude inviolate.
***
