When factions vex a state, and new abuses
Bring to her drooping banner-fold disgrace,
And Mind, forgetful of its nobler uses,
Grows sensual and base —
When the gray fathers of a nation falter,
Muffling their faces for the funeral knell.
A lightning-flash, from her poetic altar;
The darkness can dispel.
Then honored be the Bard!—a heavenly mansion
Alone could be the birth-place of an Art