 | The Poetry of Real Life |  |
41
GOD, THE GREATEST POET.
God is the greatest poet, and, like allTrue poets, maketh weekday poesy—
He paints the clouds of heaven gorgeously,
As if to paint them were his only call:
Yet 'tis their use makes them poetical!
Their use great as their beauty to the eye,
Needful to earth as lovely to the sky;
And so through all His labours, great or small!
He seeks not vain display, but blendeth Use
With Beauty, in a twofold loveliness:
That thus one thing in many ways may bless,
Serve many ends—so, after Him, the Muse:
Who teaches Truth divine, but in the dress
Of Fancy, that she wider may diffuse!
| The Poetry of Real Life | |