 | An Ode to Astronomy and other poems |  |
4
THE POET.
There is a being on the revolving earth
Whose name is as a cipher among men,
Which when unwrit is nothing, and when writ
Is nothing still. He is unknown to all
Without the circle of his little world,
As circumscribed as, to the wanderer's eye,
The view the mount-surrounded vale commands.
And yet he has I think a soaring mind,
A soul that would aspire above its clay,
A heart that would respond to one kind word,
If men to him were other than they are.
But from his childhood's hour, till now, when youth
Has just begun to fringe his lips with down,
He has but met unkindness and rebuffs,
And covert sneers, and open want of heart
And sympathy, from all who might have lent
A helping hand up life's precipitous road;
Till, tired of all the little gaining strife,
And sick of all the hoping against hope,
He has sunk down, I fear, to rise no more.
Whose name is as a cipher among men,
Which when unwrit is nothing, and when writ
Is nothing still. He is unknown to all
Without the circle of his little world,
As circumscribed as, to the wanderer's eye,
The view the mount-surrounded vale commands.
And yet he has I think a soaring mind,
A soul that would aspire above its clay,
A heart that would respond to one kind word,
If men to him were other than they are.
But from his childhood's hour, till now, when youth
Has just begun to fringe his lips with down,
He has but met unkindness and rebuffs,
And covert sneers, and open want of heart
And sympathy, from all who might have lent
A helping hand up life's precipitous road;
Till, tired of all the little gaining strife,
And sick of all the hoping against hope,
He has sunk down, I fear, to rise no more.
He is a poet, or aspires, at least,
To snatch the laurel from the sacred shrine,
But wants those wings to help him on his way
That, in these days, are only bought with gold.
Therefore he has sat down in silence now
And strings the harp no more; but oh! a blight
Has settled, like a shadow, on his heart,
And poisons slowly every virtue there.
Yet never does he utter a complaint,
Nor raise his impotent arms upbraiding Heaven,
Nor turn with hate and scorn upon mankind,
As authors or fulfillers of his fate;
But, wrapped up in his own mysterious thoughts,
He wanders like a shadow through the world,
And leaves no trace behind him of his path.
Men pass him, like a stream that may not stay,
And do not heed the pale enthusiast,
Who, like an orbitless and wandering star,
Runs counter to the spirit of the age.
He speaks to none his thoughts, he goes about
A dreamer in the work day of the world,
A stranger 'mid the brotherhood of earth;
By many scorned, by all misunderstood,
One soul affection lingering in his heart,
The worship of the beauty of the world,
Which leads us step by step to the Divine,
Having itself its own divinity.
Oh! let us hope this softener of the heart
May haply change him and redeem him yet.
To snatch the laurel from the sacred shrine,
But wants those wings to help him on his way
That, in these days, are only bought with gold.
Therefore he has sat down in silence now
And strings the harp no more; but oh! a blight
Has settled, like a shadow, on his heart,
And poisons slowly every virtue there.
Yet never does he utter a complaint,
Nor raise his impotent arms upbraiding Heaven,
Nor turn with hate and scorn upon mankind,
As authors or fulfillers of his fate;
But, wrapped up in his own mysterious thoughts,
He wanders like a shadow through the world,
And leaves no trace behind him of his path.
Men pass him, like a stream that may not stay,
And do not heed the pale enthusiast,
5
Runs counter to the spirit of the age.
He speaks to none his thoughts, he goes about
A dreamer in the work day of the world,
A stranger 'mid the brotherhood of earth;
By many scorned, by all misunderstood,
One soul affection lingering in his heart,
The worship of the beauty of the world,
Which leads us step by step to the Divine,
Having itself its own divinity.
Oh! let us hope this softener of the heart
May haply change him and redeem him yet.
| An Ode to Astronomy and other poems | |