I lost the love of heaven above, I spurned the lust of earth below, I felt the sweets of fancied love, And hell itself my only foe. I lost earth's joys, but felt the glow Of heaven's flame abound in me, Till loveliness and I did grow The bard of immortality. I loved, but woman fell away; I hid me from her faded fame. I snatched the sun's eternal ray And wrote till earth was but a name. In every language upon earth, On every shore, o'er every sea, I gave my name immortal birth And kept my spirit with the free. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET (ON RECEIVING A LETTER INFORMING ME OF THE BIRTH OF A SON) by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE GOOD-BYE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON LEINSTER by LOUISE IMOGEN GUINEY THE DEPARTURE OF THE GOOD DAEMON by ROBERT HERRICK SANDALPHON by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW WHAT BEST I SEE; TO U.S.G. RETURN'D FROM HIS WORLD'S TOUR by WALT WHITMAN |