Not vainly doth the earnest voice of man Call for the thing that is his pure desire! Fame is the birthright of the living lyre! To noble impulse Nature puts no ban. Nor vainly to the Sphinx thy voice was raised! Tho' all thy great emotions like a sea, Against her stony immortality, Shatter themselves unheeded and amazed. Time moves behind her in a blind eclipse: Yet if in her cold eyes the end of all Be visible, as on her large closed lips Hangs dumb the awful riddle of the earth; -- She sees, and she might speak, since that wild call, The mighty warning of a Poet's birth. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 49. WILLOWWOOD (1) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: 11 by ALFRED TENNYSON INSPIRATION (2) by HENRY DAVID THOREAU VARIATIONS ON A THEME by ALFRED GOLDSWORTHY BAILEY AN ADDRESS TO THE DEITY by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE CARPENTER'S STORY by ARCHIE BINNS AND IF THE SONG SHOULD DIE? by ANNIE HATCH BOORNAZIAN MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD HAYES: TO LORD AND LADY HAYES by THOMAS CAMPION |