University of Virginia Library


40

THE LONELY YEARNING

And dost thou feel, O bard, that in thine heart
There are strange powers
Unshared of men;
That in thine Art
Is something cognate to the fields of flowers
Or clouds that storm the granite-bouldered glen?
And dost thou feel that like another sense
Unknown, undreamed of by the common crowd,
The beauty of woman thrills thy soul,
A joy intense:
That thou hast ever to proclaim aloud
That Beauty sways beginning, course, and goal?
Then, if thou feelest this,
If unto thee
There is a marvel in the sunset-air
And in the swoop of swift or song of bee,—
In the sea's kiss
A glory that thy fellows may not share;

41

If most of all in Her,
Woman, who sways the heart of endless time,
The ceaseless years,
Thou findest a plenipotence sublime,
Beyond thy peers,—
If at her eyes thy soul's deep pulses stir;
Then strive thou to excel
Those unto whom thy vision is not given:
If they live nobly, well!
But strive thou after even a lordlier heaven.
Sink not below the rest. Let blind folk be!
Climb thou the mountains thy dream-glances see.
1885.