What is this quenching of immortal thirst? A numbing draught? An aimless anodyne? A furtive filching of a drink divine That earth may prove less aridly accurst? Not ever so. High poetry has long Awakened hours and animated days Of all who hunt by honor-open ways The bread of beauty and the sword of song. Through poetry man moves against the dark, Accoutred for the daunting of defeat; Through poetry he rises with the lark And is at home where earth and heaven meet; Through poetry his clay has caught a spark To light his way and make his labor sweet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ISOLATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ONE PERSON: 16 by ELINOR WYLIE THE MORAL FABLES: THE LION AND THE MOUSE by AESOP LESBIA'S COMPLAINT AGAINST THYRISIS HIS INCONSTANCY; A SONNET by PHILIP AYRES LILIES: 8 by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) THE MISTLETOE BOUGH by THOMAS HAYNES BAYLY EPIGRAM ON THE FEUDS BETWEEN HANDEL AND BONONCINI by JOHN BYROM |