Much Ado for Little and Too Little for Much

 

Clothes diminished to mere smalls,

so that what they usually conceal
may grow stunning and grand—

and thereby prove and teach

how accent—that little thing,
seemingly almost nothing,

or perhaps nothing at all—

may nonetheless convey
far more

than the bulk of prolix prose.

Thus down toward minutiae
they strain to strip.

And in that Charybdis and Scylla,

between too little
and too much,

countless mariners
will end up lost.