SUNSHINE often falls refulgent After all the corn is in; Often Allah grants indulgent Pleasure that may guard from sin: Hence your wives may number four; Though he best consults his reason, Best secures his house from treason, Who takes one and wants no more. Nor less well the man once gifted With one high and holy Thought, Will not let his mind be shifted, But adores it, as he ought; Well for him whose spirit's youth Rests as a contented lover, Nor can other charms discover Than in his absorbing Truth! But the heaven-enfranchised Poet Must have no exclusive home, He must feel, and freely show it, -- Phantasy is made to roam: He must give his passions range, He must serve no single duty, But from Beauty pass to Beauty, Constant to a constant change. With all races, of all ages, He must people his Hareem; He must search the tents of sages, He must scour the vales of dream: Ever adding to his store, From new cities, from new nations, He must rise to new creations, And, unsated, ask for more. In the manifold, the various, He delights, as Nature's child, -- Grasps at joys the most precarious, Rides on hopes, however wild! Though his heart at times perceives One enduring Love hereafter, Glimmering through his tears and laughter, Like the sun through autumn leaves. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FRAGMENTS OF A LOST GNOSTIC POEM OF THE 12TH CENTURY by HERMAN MELVILLE TO THE UNKNOWN EROS: BOOK 1: 8. DEPARTURE by COVENTRY KERSEY DIGHTON PATMORE FITZ-GREENE HALLECK, AT THE UNVEILING OF HIS STATUE by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER HE MOURNS FOR THE CHANGE THAT HAS COME UPON HIM AND BELOVED by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE BRONZE STATUE OF NAPOLEON by AUGUSTE BARBIER |