The Biologist Poem by John Bannister Tabb

I seek the poles of Being; but the breath of icy death
That bans the sailor from the utmost sea
Still baffles me.


What if the flash of naked knowledge blind
The dazzled mind?
What if beyond it depths unfathomed be
Of mystery-


Of limitless intelligence, that man,
Alert to scan,
Must headlong to annihilation fall,
Or grasp the All?


What then? Of what alone I'd compassed none
But mine-the One,
Omniscent, Omnipotent-could be
The Sovereignty.