 | Three Hundred Sonnets |  |
109
FRATERNAL EGOTISM.
Not in self-seeking doth the Poet drawFrom his own wells, and analyse his heart;
All men in all men bear a kindred part,
All spirits to all spirits are a law:
Whatever any mind has seen or felt,
That inner secret which in self he saw
With genial utterance to his brother dealt
Shall quicken him, and make his hardness melt,
His passion thrill, his frozen feeling thaw,
His selfishness to brotherhood aspire:
So then, accuse not as of mean design
The generous fervour of poetic fire,—
Such frankness cheers, such sympathies refine,
Such noble thoughts to nobler thoughts inspire.
| Three Hundred Sonnets | |