 | Vigil and vision |  |
57
PARS POETAE.
1.
I never could conceive why men should holdThe poet bound to don the huckster's dress
And tug and jostle in the motley press
Of the uncooked, to let himself be sold,
For gazing-stock, to idlers young and old,
Or with the mammon of unrighteousness
To truck and chaffer for a cheap success,
Which, gotten thus, were nought but flittergold.
An if the approof, to his endeavour due,
Be, as of right, vouchsafed by those (too few)
For judgment apt, 'tis well. But, if spite still
The voices of his peers, then those the wight
Must wait who shall come after and who will,
As without favour, judge without despite .
2.
Nor with religions hath the poet aughtTo meddle, whose religion is to do
Justly and to love mercy and the True,
Righteous and Fair still served to have and sought,
As his observance is, in word and thought
And action, from the world, as morning-dew,
Himself to hold unspotted nor ensue
The ways of men, where all is sold and bought.
The profane vulgar neither love nor hate
Shall he nor hearken to the scoffers' prate
Nor mingle with the vain uncaring crowd,
But with high thoughts his hungering soul shall feed
And Nature's voices list by mount and mead,
Thicket and waste, where lark and thrush are loud.
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