’Twas but a flash of sulphurous light from the great Tempter’s mind,
On sorrow’s cloud that sudden gleamed, the poet’s soul to blind!
It passed like lightning, and he saw again a living world—
The teeming land, the river free, the snowy sail unfurled.
The glowing sunset, gilding spire, and mast, and forest-tree,
Shed light on his enshrouded mind—he felt ’twas joy to be—
To be himself—fair Nature’s child—ay, Truth’s and Freedom’s own,
Born to a boundless heritage—heir to a laurel crown!
“I will not die, but live,” he said, “while lives the truth divine—
For Nature and for Art I’ll live—no common life be mine;