Perhaps We Both Were Sunken Argosies

Perhaps we both were sunken argosies
In which our souls were hoping urgently
That silver light we saw from each's deck
Was more than but a mirror to our wreck -
And yet that light, a mirror, if at all,
Was pleasing as the day to long nightfall,
And we each in our separate longing made
A path into the deep, in hopes there lay
A body to the lovely light we sought
And welcome entrance once the right was bought.
I didn't know, and nor the better thee,
If there indeed was light in ecstasy -
Or if that light could ever be attained
By searching in the deep that darkness made.

The greatest fortune come to man came not
Due man's desire for it to be caught;
For as a lonely cinder boosts a flame,
'Tis not the cinder that the fire claims;
Or as a single page assists a book,
The rest, and not the one, consist the bulk;
Or also as an early drop of rain
Will souse the ground, but will not cause a spate,
Fortune is glad to work beside its fate,
But we, its wish, cannot augur its weight.