Poetical Fragments from Ethel Churchill Volume II/The Poet’s First Essay

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

CHAPTER IX.

A FIRST NIGHT.

It is a fearful stake the poet casts,
When he comes forth from his sweet solitude
Of hopes, and songs, and visionary things,
To ask the iron verdict of the world.
Till then his home has been in fairyland,
Sheltered in the sweet depths of his own heart;
But the strong need of praise impels him forth;
For never was there poet but he craved
The golden sunshine of secure renown.
That sympathy which is the life of fame,
It is full dearly bought: henceforth he lives
Feverish and anxious, in an unkind world,
That only gives the laurel to the grave.

Blanchard’s title is:

THE POET’S FIRST ESSAY