LCVI If I should cast off this tattered coat, And go free into the mighty sky; If I should find nothing there But a bast blue, Echoless, ignorant,- … - Stephen Crane

LXV [Once, I knew a fine song]

Once, I knew a fine song, — It is true, believe me, — It was all of birds,
And I held them in a basket;
When I opened the wicket,
Heavens! They all flew away.
I cried, “Come back, little thoughts!”
But they only laughed.
They flew on
Until they were as sand
Thrown between me and the sky.

Through his suffering, he peers into the core of things and sees that the judgment of man is thistle-down in the wind.

The human back can become the seat of more aches and pains than are registered in books for the composite anatomy of a regiment.