LUMINOUS passions reign High in the soul of man; and they are twain. Of these he hath made the poetry of earth -- Hath made his nobler tears, his magic mirth. Fair Love is one of these, The visiting vision of seven centuries; And one is love of Nature -- love to tears -- The modern passion of this hundred years. O never to such height, O never to such spiritual light -- The light of lonely visions, and the gleam Of secret splendid sombre suns in dream -- O never to such long Glory in life, supremacy in song, Had either of these loves attained in joy, But for the ministration of a boy. Dante was one who bare Love in his deep heart, apprehended there When he was yet a child; and from that day The radiant love has never passed away. And one was Wordsworth; he Conceived the love of Nature childishly As no adult heart might; old poets sing That exaltation by remembering. For no divine Intelligence, or art, or fire, or wine, Is high-delirious as that rising lark -- The child's soul and its daybreak in the dark. And Letters keep these two Heavenly treasures safe the ages through, Safe from ignoble benison or ban -- These two high childhoods in the heart of man. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SIXTY-EIGHTH BIRTHDAY by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL SHADOWS: 2 by RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES TO THE MOCKINGBIRD by RICHARD HENRY WILDE SONNET DEDICATORY by AUGUSTE ANGELLIER HAPPINESS THROUGH THE YEAR by J. MARGARET CRUTE ASHCRAFT LESBIA'S COMPLAINT AGAINST THYRISIS HIS INCONSTANCY; A SONNET by PHILIP AYRES |