Thoughts 14: The Fate Of Poetic Genius In A Sordid Community
Hapless is he who meditates the Nine
Where Trade is all in all, intent to build
Enduring Verse! for none will deem divine
His “divine art,” however he be skilled!
There Taste, like Beauty by the hectic killed,
Fades early, leaving him alone to pine
O’er Youth’s, and Hope’s, and Passion’s pale decline,
Broken in means, and lastly, broken-willed!
To Misery wedded then, as to a wife,
Bearing the burthen of a loving heart
Unloved, adown the desolate ways of Life,
Lo, all the gain of his harmonious art
Is the cold Worldling’s sneer, or viler smart
Of Envy’s sting; and with the ignoble—strife.
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