Ep-and-Ein

Sometimes I risk a faltering step
To meet these -steins, both Ein- and Ep-:
   But hesitate and halt at last,
   Finding the works of each too vast
For such a finite brain as mine.
They gravel me, both Ep- and Ein-.
 
Ein-'s themes on space, Ep-'s things in stone
Both leave me gasping.  Tho' I own
   They're "after something," as men say,
   What master minds, what years away,
Will fully grasp at last those fine
Profundities of Ep- and Ein-?
 
I sometimes like to think, if Ep-
Could be induced to take the step,
   He might translate and bring in bounds
   Vague theories that Ein- propounds --
Carve them in stone, that, in the end
Mere fools like me might comprehend.
 
Working together thus they might
To a dull-witted world bring light.
   But when each labors all alone,
   Ep- at his monstrous things in stone.
Ein- with his talk of time-light-space
Just leave me with a wooden face.
 
Tho' here and now I own the twain
Bring but a bussing in my brain,
   Yet I, like others of my kind,
   Keen to be thought a "modern" mind,
If asked, will learnedly admit,
Each is indutitably It.