 | Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious |  |
14
PHILOSOPHY.
Not long ago I thought, my dearest friend,Like you, that all philosophy was vain,
And barren as the desert's pathless plain
Whose wastes of sand round Tadmor's fanes extend,
And, like the ocean, in the distance blend
With Heaven. But on my soul I felt a spell
Of strong magnetic virtue, to compel
My thoughts toward mightiest mysteries still to bend.
Then found I knowledge that I had not sought,
Like one who roams, the desert to explore,
And, when such dreams are farthest from his thought,
Finds suddenly a vein of precious ore,
And thanks the Power that led him to the spot,
And gathers eagerly the golden store.
| Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious | |