Madmoments: or First Verseattempts By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison |
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 | Madmoments: or First Verseattempts |  |
35
ON THE WELLDOERS OF MANKIND.
Who plucked the Laurel for the sublime BrowOf Genius, or wherefore did he chuse
That Plant? because 'neath its unwithering Hues
There lurks a deadly Poison too, which no,
No Medicine can heal? it must be so!
In it that Poison Nature did infuse,
Foreseeing what would someday be its Use,
The bitter Moral of his Tale to show!
Like Christ, th' Apostles of Humanity
Must suffer for Mankind; too strong, too deep,
The Spirit in them to be lulled asleep!
They have their Tabors too, their Agony,
And Drops of Blood, not common Tears, they weep!
Their sole Reward, their bitter and severe
Delight, which like their Pains the vulgar Mind
As little can conceive as it could bear;
Their sole Reward, to be transfigured by
The inward Light, by that sublimed, refined!
An Emanation of, nay, the most High
Himself in them, who looks with his own Eye
From them, in his own Glory steeps their Pain
And Grief, in them transfigured once again!
| Madmoments: or First Verseattempts | |