Poems (Jordan)/Eloquence
ELOQUENCE
A mighty mind seeks vainly to express, Until Imagination broods o'er words,And, with the vital warmth of tenderness, Doth hatch from Reason's eggs bright-plumaged birds.
Forth of the heart, through Feeling most intense, Come words nude, but of Nature's purity,And that alone, methinks, is eloquence Which doth appear thus unselfconsciously.
The homely, love-warm word of cheer or praise To hungry, struggling lives, must e'er eclipseIndiff'rence, though coffined in finest phrase, For 'tis the Bible—clasped with human lips!