The Abyss of Perfect Knowledge

by Max Ehrman

I plunge myself into a sea
of duty, seeking escape from the
questions at the pit of consciousness.

O shadows of Renee, Obermann, De Guerin,
Amiel, and all holders of moral inquisitions -
I shake you off!
I go out into the sunlight,
and I bathe myself in human fellowship.

Under the leaden wings of nights
I see this brood of melancholy
half-gods and half-men,
pitiable because they are neither
the one nor the other.

I grow afraid and turn away
from the bottomless pit of
perfect knowledge. I see the withered
hand that touched all these
curious adventurers who would
search the caverns of the ideal.

I dissipate the thoughts in these
scribblings, to save myself;
therefore I plunge into the sea of
daily duty, to forget the lure of the abyss
of perfect knowledge, and to live and
laugh again.