THE POET AT COURT.
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A childlike nature, index of a soul
Where goodness is intuitive—not put on
To gain false praises for a falser virtue.
A bashful softness when she tells her love—
A tremour as of guilt, with low-drooped eyes
And red-rose cheek, did not her brow serene,
Like to a temple of all holy things,
Forbid the thought. A patient power of sufferance,
Enduring all with angel smiles of love.
This, the celestial beauty of my Circé—
This is the magic potion which has changed
Earth and all earthly sorrows to a Heaven!
Where goodness is intuitive—not put on
To gain false praises for a falser virtue.
A bashful softness when she tells her love—
A tremour as of guilt, with low-drooped eyes
And red-rose cheek, did not her brow serene,
Like to a temple of all holy things,
Forbid the thought. A patient power of sufferance,
Enduring all with angel smiles of love.
This, the celestial beauty of my Circé—
This is the magic potion which has changed
Earth and all earthly sorrows to a Heaven!
THE POET AT COURT
I.
E stands alone in the lordly hall—
He, with the high, pale brow;
But never a one at the festival
Was half so great, I trow.
They kiss the hand, and they bend the knee,
Slaves to an earthly king!
But the heir of a loftier dynasty
May scorn that courtly ring.
E stands alone in the lordly hall—He, with the high, pale brow;
But never a one at the festival
Was half so great, I trow.
They kiss the hand, and they bend the knee,
Slaves to an earthly king!
But the heir of a loftier dynasty
May scorn that courtly ring.
II.
They press, with false and flattering words,
Around the blood-bought throne;
But the homage never yet won by swords
Is his—the Anointed One!
His sway over every nation
Extendeth from zone to zone;
He reigns as a god o'er creation—
The universe is his own.
They press, with false and flattering words,
Around the blood-bought throne;
But the homage never yet won by swords
Is his—the Anointed One!
His sway over every nation
Extendeth from zone to zone;
He reigns as a god o'er creation—
The universe is his own.
