The poem
Verse-making was least of my virtues: I viewed with despair Wealth that never yet was but might be--all that verse-making were If the life would but lengthen to wish, let the mind be laid bare. So I said, "To do little is bad, to do nothing is worse"-- And made verse.
Love-making,--how simple a matter! No depths to explore, No heights in a life to ascend! No disheartening Before, No affrighting Hereafter,--love now will be love ever more. So I felt "To keep silence were folly:"--all language above, I made love.