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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>A Vision of Poesy - Part 01</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">In a far country, and a distant age,<br>Ere sprites and fays had bade farewell to earth,<br>A boy was born of humble parentage;<br>The stars that shone upon his lonely birth<br>Did seem to promise sovereignty and fame --<br>Yet no tradition hath preserved his name.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> II</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'T is said that on the night when he was born,<br>A beauteous shape swept slowly through the room;<br>Its eyes broke on the infant like a morn,<br>And his cheek brightened like a rose in bloom;<br>But as it passed away there followed after<br>A sigh of pain, and sounds of elvish laughter.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> III</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And so his parents deemed him to be blest<br>Beyond the lot of mortals; they were poor<br>As the most timid bird that stored its nest<br>With the stray gleanings at their cottage-door:<br>Yet they contrived to rear their little dove,<br>And he repaid them with the tenderest love.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> IV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The child was very beautiful in sooth,<br>And as he waxed in years grew lovelier still;<br>On his fair brow the aureole of truth<br>Beamed, and the purest maidens, with a thrill,<br>Looked in his eyes, and from their heaven of blue<br>Saw thoughts like sinless Angels peering through.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> V</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Need there was none of censure or of praise<br>To mould him to the kind parental hand;<br>Yet there was ever something in his ways,<br>Which those about him could not understand;<br>A self-withdrawn and independent bliss,<br>Beside the father's love, the mother's kiss.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> VI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For oft, when he believed himself alone,<br>They caught brief snatches of mysterious rhymes,<br>Which he would murmur in an undertone,<br>Like a pleased bee's in summer; and at times<br>A strange far look would come into his eyes,<br>As if he saw a vision in the skies.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> VII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And he upon a simple leaf would pore<br>As if its very texture unto him<br>Had some deep meaning; sometimes by the door,<br>From noon until a summer-day grew dim,<br>He lay and watched the clouds; and to his thought<br>Night with her stars but fitful slumbers brought.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> VIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">In the long hours of twilight, when the breeze<br>Talked in low tones along the woodland rills,<br>Or the loud North its stormy minstrelsies<br>Blent with wild noises from the distant hills,<br>The boy -- his rosy hand against his ear<br>Curved like a sea-shell -- hushed as some rapt seer,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> IX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Followed the sounds, and ever and again,<br>As the wind came and went, in storm or play,<br>He seemed to hearken as to some far strain<br>Of mingled voices calling him away;<br>And they who watched him held their breath to trace<br>The still and fixed attention in his face.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> X</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Once, on a cold and loud-voiced winter night,<br>The three were seated by their cottage-fire --<br>The mother watching by its flickering light<br>The wakeful urchin, and the dozing sire;<br>There was a brief, quick motion like a bird's,<br>And the boy's thought thus rippled into words:</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"O mother! thou hast taught me many things,<br>But none I think more beautiful than speech --<br>A nobler power than even those broad wings<br>I used to pray for, when I longed to reach<br>That distant peak which on our vale looks down,<br>And wears the star of evening for a crown.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"But, mother, while our human words are rife<br>To us with meaning, other sounds there be<br>Which seem, and are, the language of a life<br>Around, yet unlike ours: winds talk; the sea<br>Murmurs articulately, and the sky<br>Listens, and answers, though inaudibly.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"By stream and spring, in glades and woodlands lone,<br>Beside our very cot I've gathered flowers<br>Inscribed with signs and characters unknown;<br>But the frail scrolls still baffle all my powers:<br>What is this language and where is the key<br>That opes its weird and wondrous mystery?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XIV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"The forests know it, and the mountains know,<br>And it is written in the sunset's dyes;<br>A revelation to the world below<br>Is daily going on before our eyes;<br>And, but for sinful thoughts, I do not doubt<br>That we could spell the thrilling secret out.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"O mother! somewhere on this lovely earth<br>I lived, and understood that mystic tongue,<br>But, for some reason, to my second birth<br>Only the dullest memories have clung,<br>Like that fair tree that even while blossoming<br>Keeps the dead berries of a former spring.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XVI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Who shall put life in these? -- my nightly dreams<br>Some teacher of supernal powers foretell;<br>A fair and stately shape appears, which seems<br>Bright with all truth; and once, in a dark dell<br>Within the forest, unto me there came<br>A voice that must be hers, which called my name."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XVII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Puzzled and frightened, wondering more and more,<br>The mother heard, but did not comprehend;<br>"So early dallying with forbidden lore!<br>Oh, what will chance, and wherein will it end?<br>My child! my child!" she caught him to her breast,<br>"Oh, let me kiss these wildering thoughts to rest!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XVIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"They cannot come from God, who freely gives<br>All that we need to have, or ought to know;<br>Beware, my son! some evil influence strives<br>To grieve thy parents, and to work thee woe;<br>Alas! the vision I misunderstood!<br>It could not be an angel fair and good."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XIX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And then, in low and tremulous tones, she told<br>The story of his birth-night; the boy's eyes,<br>As the wild tale went on, were bright and bold,<br>With a weird look that did not seem surprise:<br>"Perhaps," he said, "this lady and her elves<br>Will one day come, and take me to themselves."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"And wouldst thou leave us?" "Dearest mother, no!<br>Hush! I will check these thoughts that give thee pain;<br>Or, if they flow, as they perchance must flow,<br>At least I will not utter them again;<br>Hark! didst thou hear a voice like many streams?<br>Mother! it is the spirit of my dreams!"</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thenceforth, whatever impulse stirred below,<br>In the deep heart beneath that childish breast,<br>Those lips were sealed, and though the eye would glow,<br>Yet the brow wore an air of perfect rest;<br>Cheerful, content, with calm though strong control<br>He shut the temple-portals of his soul.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And when too restlessly the mighty throng<br>Of fancies woke within his teeming mind,<br>All silently they formed in glorious song,<br>And floated off unheard, and undivined,<br>Perchance not lost -- with many a voiceless prayer<br>They reached the sky, and found some record there.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Softly and swiftly sped the quiet days;<br>The thoughtful boy has blossomed into youth,<br>And still no maiden would have feared his gaze,<br>And still his brow was noble with the truth:<br>Yet, though he masks the pain with pious art,<br>There burns a restless fever in his heart.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXIV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">A childish dream is now a deathless need<br>Which drives him to far hills and distant wilds;<br>The solemn faith and fervor of his creed<br>Bold as a martyr's, simple as a child's;<br>The eagle knew him as she knew the blast,<br>And the deer did not flee him as he passed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But gentle even in his wildest mood,<br>Always, and most, he loved the bluest weather,<br>And in some soft and sunny solitude<br>Couched like a milder sunshine on the heather,<br>He communed with the winds, and with the birds,<br>As if they might have answered him in words.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXVI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Deep buried in the forest was a nook<br>Remote and quiet as its quiet skies;<br>He knew it, sought it, loved it as a book<br>Full of his own sweet thoughts and memories;<br>Dark oaks and fluted chestnuts gathering round,<br>Pillared and greenly domed a sloping mound.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXVII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Whereof -- white, purple, azure, golden, red,<br>Confused like hues of sunset -- the wild flowers<br>Wove a rich dais; through crosslights overhead<br>Glanced the clear sunshine, fell the fruitful showers,<br>And here the shyest bird would fold her wings;<br>Here fled the fairest and the gentlest things.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXVIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Thither, one night of mist and moonlight, came<br>The youth, with nothing deeper in his thoughts<br>Than to behold beneath the silver flame<br>New aspects of his fair and favorite spot;<br>A single ray attained the ground, and shed<br>Just light enough to guide the wanderer's tread.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXIX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And high and hushed arose the stately trees,<br>Yet shut within themselves, like dungeons, where<br>Lay fettered all the secrets of the breeze;<br>Silent, but not as slumbering, all things there<br>Wore to the youth's aroused imagination<br>An air of deep and solemn expectation.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Hath Heaven," the youth exclaimed, "a sweeter spot,<br>Or Earth another like it? -- yet even here<br>The old mystery dwells! and though I read it not,<br>Here most I hope -- it is, or seems so near;<br>So many hints come to me, but, alas!<br>I cannot grasp the shadows as they pass.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Here, from the very turf beneath me, I<br>Catch, but just catch, I know not what faint sound,<br>And darkly guess that from yon silent sky<br>Float starry emanations to the ground;<br>These ears are deaf, these human eyes are blind,<br>I want a purer heart, a subtler mind.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Sometimes -- could it be fancy? -- I have felt<br>The presence of a spirit who might speak;<br>As down in lowly reverence I knelt,<br>Its very breath hath kissed my burning cheek;<br>But I in vain have hushed my own to hear<br>A wing or whisper stir the silent air!"</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Is not the breeze articulate? Hark! Oh, hark!<br>A distant murmur, like a voice of floods;<br>And onward sweeping slowly through the dark,<br>Bursts like a call the night-wind from the woods!<br>Low bow the flowers, the trees fling loose their dreams,<br>And through the waving roof a fresher moonlight streams.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXIV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Mortal!" -- the word crept slowly round the place<br>As if that wind had breathed it! From no star<br>Streams that soft lustre on the dreamer's face.<br>Again a hushing calm! while faint and far<br>The breeze goes calling onward through the night.<br>Dear God! what vision chains that wide-strained sight?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Over the grass and flowers, and up the slope<br>Glides a white cloud of mist, self-moved and slow,<br>That, pausing at the hillock's moonlit cope,<br>Swayed like a flame of silver; from below<br>The breathless youth with beating heart beholds<br>A mystic motion in its argent folds.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXVI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yet his young soul is bold, and hope grows warm,<br>As flashing through that cloud of shadowy crape,<br>With sweep of robes, and then a gleaming arm,<br>Slowly developing, at last took shape<br>A face and form unutterably bright,<br>That cast a golden glamour on the night.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXVII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But for the glory round it it would seem<br>Almost a mortal maiden; and the boy,<br>Unto whom love was yet an innocent dream,<br>Shivered and crimsoned with an unknown joy;<br>As to the young Spring bounds the passionate South,<br>He could have clasped and kissed her mouth to mouth.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXVIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yet something checked, that was and was not dread,<br>Till in a low sweet voice the maiden spake;<br>She was the Fairy of his dreams, she said,<br>And loved him simply for his human sake;<br>And that in heaven, wherefrom she took her birth,<br>They called her Poesy, the angel of the earth.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XXXIX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"And ever since that immemorial hour,<br>When the glad morning-stars together sung,<br>My task hath been, beneath a mightier Power,<br>To keep the world forever fresh and young;<br>I give it not its fruitage and its green,<br>But clothe it with a glory all unseen.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XL</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"I sow the germ which buds in human art,<br>And, with my sister, Science, I explore<br>With light the dark recesses of the heart,<br>And nerve the will, and teach the wish to soar;<br>I touch with grace the body's meanest clay,<br>While noble souls are nobler for my sway.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Before my power the kings of earth have bowed;<br>I am the voice of Freedom, and the sword<br>Leaps from its scabbard when I call aloud;<br>Wherever life in sacrifice is poured,<br>Wherever martyrs die or patriots bleed,<br>I weave the chaplet and award the meed.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Where Passion stoops, or strays, is cold, or dead,<br>I lift from error, or to action thrill!<br>Or if it rage too madly in its bed,<br>The tempest hushes at my `Peace! be still!'<br>I know how far its tides should sink or swell,<br>And they obey my sceptre and my spell.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"All lovely things, and gentle -- the sweet laugh<br>Of children, Girlhood's kiss, and Friendship's clasp,<br>The boy that sporteth with the old man's staff,<br>The baby, and the breast its fingers grasp --<br>All that exalts the grounds of happiness,<br>All griefs that hallow, and all joys that bless,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLIV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"To me are sacred; at my holy shrine<br>Love breathes its latest dreams, its earliest hints;<br>I turn life's tasteless waters into wine,<br>And flush them through and through with purple tints.<br>Wherever Earth is fair, and Heaven looks down,<br>I rear my altars, and I wear my crown.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"I am the unseen spirit thou hast sought,<br>I woke those shadowy questionings that vex<br>Thy young mind, lost in its own cloud of thought,<br>And rouse the soul they trouble and perplex;<br>I filled thy days with visions, and thy nights<br>Blessed with all sweetest sounds and fairy sights.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLVI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Not here, not in this world, may I disclose<br>The mysteries in which this life is hearsed;<br>Some doubts there be that, with some earthly woes,<br>By Death alone shall wholly be dispersed;<br>Yet on those very doubts from this low sod<br>Thy soul shall pass beyond the stars to God.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLVII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"And so to knowledge, climbing grade by grade,<br>Thou shalt attain whatever mortals can,<br>And what thou mayst discover by my aid<br>Thou shalt translate unto thy brother man;<br>And men shall bless the power that flings a ray<br>Into their night from thy diviner day.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLVIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"For, from thy lofty height, thy words shall fall<br>Upon their spirits like bright cataracts<br>That front a sunrise; thou shalt hear them call<br>Amid their endless waste of arid facts,<br>As wearily they plod their way along,<br>Upon the rhythmic zephyrs of thy song.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> XLIX</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"All this is in thy reach, but much depends<br>Upon thyself -- thy future I await;<br>I give the genius, point the proper ends,<br>But the true bard is his own only Fate;<br>Into thy soul my soul have I infused;<br>Take care thy lofty powers be wisely used.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> L</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"The Poet owes a high and holy debt,<br>Which, if he feel, he craves not to be heard<br>For the poor boon of praise, or place, nor yet<br>Does the mere joy of song, as with the bird<br>Of many voices, prompt the choral lay<br>That cheers that gentle pilgrim on his way.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> LI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Nor may he always sweep the passionate lyre,<br>Which is his heart, only for such relief<br>As an impatient spirit may desire,<br>Lest, from the grave which hides a private grief,<br>The spells of song call up some pallid wraith<br>To blast or ban a mortal hope or faith.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> LII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Yet over his deep soul, with all its crowd<br>Of varying hopes and fears, he still must brood;<br>As from its azure height a tranquil cloud<br>Watches its own bright changes in the flood;<br>Self-reading, not self-loving -- they are twain --<br>And sounding, while he mourns, the depths of pain.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> LIII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Thus shall his songs attain the common breast,<br>Dyed in his own life's blood, the sign and seal,<br>Even as the thorns which are the martyr's crest,<br>That do attest his office, and appeal<br>Unto the universal human heart<br>In sanction of his mission and his art.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> LIV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"Much yet remains unsaid -- pure must he be;<br>Oh, blessed are the pure! for they shall hear<br>Where others hear not, see where others see<br>With a dazed vision: who have drawn most near<br>My shrine, have ever brought a spirit cased<br>And mailed in a body clean and chaste.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> LV</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"The Poet to the whole wide world belongs,<br>Even as the teacher is the child's -- I said<br>No selfish aim should ever mar his songs,<br>But self wears many guises; men may wed<br>Self in another, and the soul may be<br>Self to its centre, all unconsciously.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> LVI</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"And therefore must the Poet watch, lest he,<br>In the dark struggle of this life, should take<br>Stains which he might not notice; he must flee<br>Falsehood, however winsome, and forsake<br>All for the Truth, assured that Truth alone<br>Is Beauty, and can make him all my own.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> LVII</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">"And he must be as arm|"ed warrior strong,<br>And he must be as gentle as a girl,<br>And he must front, and sometimes suffer wrong,<br>With brow unbent, and lip untaught to curl;<br>For wrath, and scorn, and pride, however just,<br>Fill the clear spirit's eyes with earthly dust."</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"> --------</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=409050" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The story came to me -- it recks not whence --<br>In fragments. Oh! if I could tell it all,<br>If human speech indeed could tell it all,<br>'T were not a whit less wondrous, than if I<br>Should find, untouched in leaf and stem, and bright,<br>As when it bloomed three thousand years ago,<br>On some Idalian slope, a perfect rose.<br>Alas! a leaf or two, and they perchance<br>Scarce worth the hiving, one or two dead leaves<br>Are the sole harvest of a summer's toil.<br>There was a moment, ne'er to be recalled,<br>When to the Poet's hope within my heart,<br>They wore a tint like life's, but in my hand,<br>I know not why, they withered. I have heard<br>Somewhere, of some dead monarch, from the tomb,<br>Where he had slept a century and more,<br>Brought forth, that when the coffin was laid bare,<br>Albeit the body in its mouldering robes<br>Was fleshless, yet one feature still remained<br>Perfect, or perfect seemed at least; the eyes<br>Gleamed for a second on the startled crowd,<br>And then went out in ashes. Even thus<br>The story, when I drew it from the grave<br>Where it had lain so long, did seem, I thought,<br>Not wholly lifeless; but even while I gazed<br>To fix its features on my heart, and called<br>The world to wonder with me, lo! it proved<br>I looked upon a corpse!<br> What further fell<br>In that lone forest nook, how much was taught,<br>How much was only hinted, what the youth<br>Promised, if promise were required, to do<br>Or strive for, what the gifts he bore away --<br>Or added powers or blessings -- how at last,<br>The vision ended and he sought his home,<br>How lived there, and how long, and when he passed<br>Into the busy world to seek his fate,<br>I know not, and if any ever knew,<br>The tale hath perished from the earth; for here<br>The slender thread on which my song is strung<br>Breaks off, and many after years of life<br>Are lost to sight, the life to reappear<br>Only towards its close -- as of a dream<br>We catch the end and opening, but forget<br>That which had joined them in the dreaming brain;<br>Or as a mountain with a belt of mist<br>That shows his base, and far above, a peak<br>With a blue plume of pines.<br> But turn the page<br>And read the only hints that yet remain.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Henry+Timrod">Henry Timrod</a></strong></div>

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