Narrow Couplets

Icke always despised Seamusinog Brown as being rather simple minded. Icke on more than one occasion used his influence at court to have Brown passed over. But the Irish poet did outwit his Hungarian contemporary every now and then. Such was the case when he published his collection of short verse called "... and then some" the same day as Icke's lengthy anti-war poetry collection "A very few..." was released.

Of course neither book was well recieved but the frequent short epilogues in Brown often seemed to rewrite the intended meanings (where they could be found) of Icke's verses. Though Brown died that same year and was soon forgotten, Icke continued to curse his name as he himself fell into obscurity.

Here is one of Brown's typical short response poems called "Narrow Couplets"

Just so thin a line of thought,
A fragile web reason has wrought;
From stable point to point it drew,
Restricted paths now bounded to;
And ever distant truth remained,
No more revealed, no less contained.

This shuttered sight neglects to see,
The everywhere present mystery.
Yet in that wholesome word both dwell,
The heights of heav'n and depths of hell.