University of Virginia Library


102

[The Poet's your only practical man]

The Poet's your only practical man;
Judge of the things of life he can;
Food and toys which all men covet
He sets at their due rate, not above it.
He wakes, he dreams; knows every mood.
His bad luck is better than common good.
He tastes his life, in joy and in sorrow.
Yesterday's his, to-day, and to-morrow.
The world is a wondrous thing to see,
And O, what a happy man were he,
Could he live content to be a Poet,
And quell the cursed longing to show it!