Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODE TO A HUMAN HEART, by SAMUEL LAMAN BLANCHARD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE TO A HUMAN HEART, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Blind thamyris, and blind maeonides
Last Line: [note: lines are taken from famous poems]
Alternate Author Name(s): Blanchard, Laman
Subject(s): Ingenuity


BLIND Thamyris, and Blind Maeonides,
Pursue the triumph and partake the gale!
Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees,
To point a moral or adorn a tale.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears,
Like angels' visits, few and far between,
Deck the long vista of departed years.

Man never is, but always to be blessed;
The tenth transmitter of a foolish face,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows up the rest,
And makes a sunshine in the shady place.

For man the hermit sighed, till the woman smiled,
To waft a feather or to drown a fly,
(In wit a man, simplicity a child,)
With silent finger pointing to the sky.

But fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Far out amid the melancholy main;
As when a vulture on Imaus bred,
Dies of a rose in aromatic pain.

Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
Look on her face, and you'll forget them all;
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
A hero perish, or a sparrow fall.

My way of life is fall'n into the sere;
I stood in Venice on the Bridge of Sighs,
Like a rich jewel in Ethiop's ear,
Who sees through all things with his half-shut eyes.

Oh! for a lodge in some vast wilderness!
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
Fine by degrees and beautifully less,
And die ere man can say "Long live the Queen!"

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[Note: lines are taken from famous poems]




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