University of Virginia Library

THE POET'S MISSION.

Would you hear the poet's mission? When the gods lean from above,
Placing in his heart the wisdom and the music that they love,
Thus they whisper, while the laurel clasps his forehead like a belt,
All their inspiration to him, still unseen, but ever felt:
“Go thou forth, and with thy fellows toil and cheer and sing and live,
For thy lips have felt the magic which to few we care to give,
And thine eyes have other vision, looking far into the years,
And thy heart a deeper insight into human life and fears;
Oracles to shape and utter to thy toiling fellow-kind
Are upon thy lips, to lift them upward to the wider mind—
Upward to the truth and silence giving birth to fitting deeds,
And the purposes that look beyond the useless film of creeds—
Purposes that yearn to usher in the firm result of good,
Till the systems shake and settle into world-brotherhood;
Thou shalt sing this in thy lyrics, knowing we who watch above
Care but for the proper guiding of the music that we love.
Shame to him whose lips are touch'd, yet takes his common life again,
Heedless of the earnest mission which through him we speak to men:
All the laurel on his brow shall wither, and within his heart
Gilded things shall take their place, and into hollow laughter start;
He shall claim no meed of prophet, and his voice be as a sound
Coming from all points of heaven, and unto aimless visions bound.
But thine office shall be greater, for each whisper of thy song
Shall have power to make thy fellows battle with eternal wrong—
Battle with all strife and faction till the coming light of good
Ushers in its many triumphs, guiltless of the taint of blood.
Then the heart shall swell and widen, and from out the sordid dust
Take no more its life, but tremble with the love it keeps in trust—
Love for better faith and action—love that works and wears away
All the grosser rinds that compass what within is finer clay.
Then shall men be to each other brothers, not in word but deed,
Shaping all their paths in forethought of a weaker fellow's need;
Striving to be wide and useful, strong in human right and bold,
Till they seem to us like shadows of ourselves in rougher mould.
Go thou forth, then, to thy mission, knowing we who watch above
Care but for the proper guiding of the music that we love.
Sing, and make thy fellows stronger; lift them from the earth-desire—
Sing, nor shame the inspiration throbbing on thy lips like fire—
Throbbing with its wealth of music, bursting out in pæans strong,
Till the world rolling onward takes its motions from thy song.”