William James and Autumn by Leonard Bacon (1940)

Partakers of the life of God,
Drunkards of the Divine — what else? —
We face the serpent or the rod
And buckle truth within our belts —

Truth that strange thing that must describe
The instant feeling of a man,
Nor shirk the emotions of the tribe,
That all must know or no one can.

That, it is felt, the man should feel.
What man? What throb should touch him so,
Who beats at barriers that conceal
The mysteries he can never know?

He fronts the scorpions and the whips,
With such devices as he can,
Dazzled by each apocalypse
That tells him nothing. Man! Man! Man!