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FOR THOUGHTS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thoughts! What are they
Last Line: Gainst the full quivers of my destiny.


I.

Thoughts! What are they?
They are my constant friends,
Who, when harsh Fate its dull brow bends,
Uncloud me with a smiling ray,
And in the depth of midnight force a day.

II.

When I retire, and flee
The busy throngs of company
To hug myself in privacy;
O the discourse! the pleasant talk,
'Twixt us (my thoughts) along a lonely walk!

III.

You, like the stupefying wine
The dying malefactors sip
With shivering lip,
T' abate the rigour of their doom,
By a less troublous cut to their long home;
Make me slight crosses, though they pil'd up lie,
All by th' enchantments of an ecstasy.

IV.

Do I desire to see
The Throne and Majesty
Of that proud one,
Brother and Uncle to the Stars and Sun?
Those can conduct me where such toys reside,
And waft me 'cross the main, sans wind and tide.

V.

Would I descry
Those radiant mansions 'bove the sky,
Invisible by mortal eye?
My Thoughts, my Thoughts can lay
A shining track thereto,
And nimbly fleeting go:
Through all the eleven orbs can shove a way,
These too, like Jacob's Ladder, are
A most Angelic thoroughfare.

VI.

The wealth that shines
In th' Oriental mines;
Those sparkling gems which Nature keeps
Within her cabinets, the deeps;
The verdant fields,
The rarities the rich World yields;
Rare structures, whose each gilded spire
Glimmers like lightning; which, while men admire,
They deem the neighbouring sky on fire, --
These can I gaze upon, and glut mine eyes
With myriads of varieties.
As on the front of Pisgah, I
Can th' Holy Land through these my optics spy

VII.

Contemn we then
The peevish rage of men,
Whose violence ne'er can divorce
Our mutual amity;
Or lay so damn'd a curse
As Non-addresses, 'twixt my thoughts and me:
For though I sigh in irons, they
Use their old freedom, readily obey;
And when my bosom-friends desert me, stay.

VIII.

Come then, my darlings, I'll embrace
My privilege; make known
The high prerogative I own,
By making all allurements give you place;
Whose sweet society to me
A sanctuary and a shield shall be
'Gainst the full quivers of my Destiny.





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