26.12.2010, 12:57
ON A GENIUS OF LOWLY ESTATE.
Where may not souls be found to greatness true ?
Bom with no loftier hope or prouder aim
Than lineage lowly, like his own, could claim,
How did he guess at his immortal due ?
How was the fire first smitten from the steel ?
'When came that strange enforcement of his will ?
How did his mind, 'mid poverty and ill,
Find leisure to endow itself so well ?
Methinks, one shimmers eve, he first did hear
The rise and fall of music in his heart ;
Wild notes, a-dropping downward without art
To a sweet close, that fell upon his ear
Unutterably soft, and yet most clear,
And seeming from his bosom's depth to start'
Where may not souls be found to greatness true ?
Bom with no loftier hope or prouder aim
Than lineage lowly, like his own, could claim,
How did he guess at his immortal due ?
How was the fire first smitten from the steel ?
'When came that strange enforcement of his will ?
How did his mind, 'mid poverty and ill,
Find leisure to endow itself so well ?
Methinks, one shimmers eve, he first did hear
The rise and fall of music in his heart ;
Wild notes, a-dropping downward without art
To a sweet close, that fell upon his ear
Unutterably soft, and yet most clear,
And seeming from his bosom's depth to start'