beauty is a quality

If this world is not merely a bad joke, 

life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars, 

and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries; 

If these intimations of a something behind and beyond

are not evil humour born of indigestion, 

or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us.

If, in a word beauty means something yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning.

If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it.