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Or, in the verse the lover finds
His rapturous love portrayed
So wondrously, he cries—"What minds
These poets have—some aid
Supernal they must needs obtain,
Else how could they display
The thoughts that folded in my brain,
Hopeless of utterance, lay?"

Ah! had I but the poet's heart
All else would I forego,
And bear with patience every smart
Fate might on me bestow:
No other gift so rich and rare
Can mortal man obtain,
E'en though 'tis linked with carking care,
And with the world's disdain.

When vain is philosophic speech
And reason pleads in vain,
Even then the poet's words will reach
The heart and soothe its pain:
There's no dark corner of the soul
The poet may not scan—
Philosophers see part—the whole
Only the poet can.

1885

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