Poems (Jordan)/Man his own Ideal
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MAN HIS OWN IDEAL
'Tis "as a man thinketh so is he;"
His thought cannot reach himself beyond;
Else would his thought the Creator be
Of things which its own capacity
Was not the measure to correspond!
His thought cannot reach himself beyond;
Else would his thought the Creator be
Of things which its own capacity
Was not the measure to correspond!
'Tis thus that what I most love exists;
If not within the body I see,
Still Longing persistently insists
That it its full satisfaction wists
Hid in the fact that itself doth be!
If not within the body I see,
Still Longing persistently insists
That it its full satisfaction wists
Hid in the fact that itself doth be!
An artist turned from his picture rare,
And bitterly wept as he it surveyed,
I asked, as I heard him sobbing, there,
What was the cause of the deep despair
Which his emotion thus betrayed?
And bitterly wept as he it surveyed,
I asked, as I heard him sobbing, there,
What was the cause of the deep despair
Which his emotion thus betrayed?
"Alas!" cried he, "'tis my masterpiece;
Beyond that picture I cannot go!"
At once I bade his mourning cease,
By showing him, thus, its causelessness:—
"That there is beyond, 'tis yours to show!"
Beyond that picture I cannot go!"
At once I bade his mourning cease,
By showing him, thus, its causelessness:—
"That there is beyond, 'tis yours to show!"