 | The heir of the world, and lesser poems |  |
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THE REWARD OF FAME.
To gain a name, and be the thing the world
Mimics and mocks, cajoles, calumniates,
Dooms to despair, and destines for the shrine
Of fame; to feel the butterflies of earth
Drinking the essence of almighty thought;
To see the raven wear the glorious plumes
Of the sun-daring eagle, and to be
The vassal camel of a mental waste,
Toiling for things detestable, who goad
With gilded lances creatures finely wrought
In the fair mould of Heaven's divinity!
'Mid vigils of deep thought to feel the breath
Of most reviving morn steal o'er the fires
Of the hot brain, and hear the day-spring airs
Chant mid the dewy leaves to hopeless wo,
Mocking the spirit's ear! To look abroad
O'er earth and heaven, and weave in sunny web
Thoughts pure and delicate, conceptions high,
Creations glorious as an eastern dream,
Threads spun in paradise, and knit and linked
By magic skill of mighty intellect!
To think, toil, fancy thus—and yet to know
That we create an Eden for base worms,
Serpents of venom, reptiles foul, and things
Beneath all name—it is the dream of Hell!
Mimics and mocks, cajoles, calumniates,
Dooms to despair, and destines for the shrine
Of fame; to feel the butterflies of earth
Drinking the essence of almighty thought;
To see the raven wear the glorious plumes
Of the sun-daring eagle, and to be
The vassal camel of a mental waste,
Toiling for things detestable, who goad
With gilded lances creatures finely wrought
In the fair mould of Heaven's divinity!
'Mid vigils of deep thought to feel the breath
Of most reviving morn steal o'er the fires
Of the hot brain, and hear the day-spring airs
Chant mid the dewy leaves to hopeless wo,
Mocking the spirit's ear! To look abroad
O'er earth and heaven, and weave in sunny web
Thoughts pure and delicate, conceptions high,
Creations glorious as an eastern dream,
Threads spun in paradise, and knit and linked
By magic skill of mighty intellect!
To think, toil, fancy thus—and yet to know
That we create an Eden for base worms,
Serpents of venom, reptiles foul, and things
Beneath all name—it is the dream of Hell!
And then the cold neglect, the stinging scorn,
The autocratic look, the demon sneer,
That calls itself a smile, the taunting speech,
That words its malice in fair compliment
To aggravate its bitterness; the eye,
Whose earth-bent gaze doth seem to scorn and laugh
At what the curl'd lip utters; the oblique leer
Of cruel envy, telling standers-by
That its approval is the baited barb,
Which all-confiding Genius swallows down
To its own ruin! These are not a tithe
Of all the votary of living Fame
Must silently endure. His ocean thought
Commingles with the universe, and rolls
In tides sublime along the eternal shore,
Its billows swelling amid worlds of light
And sounding immortality! around
Floats holiest music, and, above, ascend
The pillar'd battlements of Mind's own home,
Warded by spirits of the sun—below—
O son of Genius! Earth is not for thee!
The autocratic look, the demon sneer,
That calls itself a smile, the taunting speech,
That words its malice in fair compliment
To aggravate its bitterness; the eye,
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At what the curl'd lip utters; the oblique leer
Of cruel envy, telling standers-by
That its approval is the baited barb,
Which all-confiding Genius swallows down
To its own ruin! These are not a tithe
Of all the votary of living Fame
Must silently endure. His ocean thought
Commingles with the universe, and rolls
In tides sublime along the eternal shore,
Its billows swelling amid worlds of light
And sounding immortality! around
Floats holiest music, and, above, ascend
The pillar'd battlements of Mind's own home,
Warded by spirits of the sun—below—
O son of Genius! Earth is not for thee!
| The heir of the world, and lesser poems | |