Chapter XIII: Cast Out

As to the heliotrope comes fluttering down The peacock-butterfly, who sips and flies, So each glad day gold-winged came to the land And sipped its sip of time and fled away. Now in an evil hour I hungered, and I saw The tree of life that grew forbidden fruit. What harm, I thought, is there to always live? To live is happiness; but to die is pain. The rental claimed by death falls due too soon. So I reached forth, and took the fruit, and ate. Then all the sky grew dark, and from the land Malignant terrors drove me shrieking forth; And as I fled, my youth abandoned me; My hair turned gray, my shoulders stooped, my blood Grew colder, and my perfect form was changed. A weak old man with wrinkled face, I fled, To wander in the wastes. Once I looked back Upon the garden; over it the sky Was soft and clear; and midway in the air I saw Veera between two angels, borne To heaven. So I turned again and fled.