Sets bells in the philosophic mind nnging, Echoing in the lower depths of birth's mystery, The sound, radar-like, reflecting on the child A Delphic simplicity surrounds the child, Of unheard oracles foreshadowing the man, The guilt of whose actions will smudge the mystery Of his borning blamelessness like hanging clouds- But now at this time of matin's ringing He is not menaced bj these dark shapes. But huw avoid the destiny that shapes His end? Is there an innocence in the child, Or will he find in the lead and silver nnging Of time that advances the maturity ot man, That the guiltlessness that shone in trailing clouds Of glory was a fraud, and kill a mystery? Explaining is the only death of mystery, But who explains? the craftsman, drawing shapes From clay? the steersman in nebular clouds9 For who has found the way to tell the child That good and bad alone defines a man, In words that won't set his ears nnging? Too soon he'll see the wolf-thoughts ringing Him in, tearing rending-what? a mystery? Ripping away till all that's left is man. Paradise is lost, but m the golden shapes That sometimes stir, we see the child, And sometimes see our future in his clouds. Sadly, Astiki died at the height of his powers, mistakenly killed by a palace guard on the night following an unsuccessful early uprising against Leto. IMPERIAL POETRY 343 IMPERIUM, FEUDAL PATTERNS Some students of Astiki's work have ar gued that his poetry after 10240 hints at a change in his attitude toward Leto To be sure, his later verse is much freer, experimental in form, and notably so when compared to an early work like "Leto," which follows exactly the ancient form called a sestina His last poem, Martyrs,"5 may reflect his feelings about Leto, but in the absence of secure corroboration, a definite statement about its meaning is risky MARTYRS Martyrs have uses, but to God only Utility's relationship to man is lost, For martyrs are arisen corpses Come to the graveyards of our sensibilities If eyes shrouded with the film of power Could see the mockery of their postures In opposition to a will on fire, They would know (heir fight was lost In loins a generation past at! ftuitfulness But nonetheless they don their suits of custom As shelter from the moimtatnfall of die divine Martyrs ahvajs were and wiB and never needed be, But it comes as little comfort when they die That the mouth of hell is hot and licks its lips In pleasure drooling for the taste of oppressor With this enigmatic work, Astiki's career ended, and with him died die last personal poetic link with the era before the reign of Leto II The poets who followed him were from a new generation, and continued the Golden Age of Atreidean Fremen literature from the standpoint of those who looked back on, rafter than witnessed, the events that molded their times WE M NOTES 'Henoor Sentraks, Lyncs tr Mauzan Gwidm (Grummm Hartley UP), p 306 :I)waidr Kauznci Posthumous Poetry Edited in His Honor by L.