Limitation

TELL the time around the clock.
Set the hands and know the hour.
Hear the tick and then the tock.
Sixty count, and sixty more.

Tell the compass by the arrow.
See the North by its deflection.
If it does the same tomorrow,
That, conclude, is that direction.

Mark the stars and measure heaven.
On a chart record the tides.
Have a ledger for the seven
Places where the week resides.

Read equation, fix a constant,
Tell the table, speak the Rule,
Make a wish and in the instant
Flickers here a spinning tool.

Steel encased and on a cushion
Sits the half-transfigured one,
Whirling, streaking, bullet-fashion,
Back and forth across the sun.

He who taps the proper lever
May be flicked from pole to pole.
Though he travel thus forever,
Anchored still remains the soul.

Paint the moon and hoist the planet.
Ride as fast as ever can.
Still, in any ticking minute,
Man is limited to man.

One man flies across the ocean.
Second man sets clock ahead.
Who would live in rapid motion?
Who would travel time instead?

Order peace and order pleasure,
Shine the cities, polish globe.
But of this the final measure
Is appraised in frontal lobe.