[From "The Album." Manchester, November, 1850.]
THE POET'S LOT.
BY PHILIP JAMES BAILEY, AUTHOR OF "FESTUS," ETC.
Nature in the poet's heart is limned
In little, as in landscape stones we see
The swell of land, and groves, and running streams,
Fresh from the wolds of Chaos; or perchance
The imaged hint of antemundane life,—
A photograph of preexistent light,—
Or Paradisal sun. So, in his mind
The broad conditions of the world are graven,
Thoroughly and grandly; in accord wherewith
His life is ruled to be, and eke to bear.
Wisdom he wills not only for himself,
But undergoes the sacred rites whereby
The privilege he hath earned he may promulge,
And all men make the partners of his light.
Between the priestly and the laic powers
The poet stands, a bright and living link;
Now chanting odes divine and sacred spells—
Now with fine magic, holy and austere,
Inviting angels or evoking fiends;
And now, in festive guise arrayed, his brow
With golden fillet bounden round—alone,
Earnest to charm the throng that celebrates
The games now—now the mysteries of life,
With truths ornate and Pleasure's choicest plea.
Thus he becomes the darling of mankind,
Armed with the instinct both of rule and right,
And the world's minion, privileged to speak
When all beside, the medley mass, are mute:
Distills his soul into a song—and dies.
THE COUNT MONTE-LEONE:
OR, THE SPY IN SOCIETY.[6]
TRANSLATED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MONTHLY MAGAZINE FROM THE FRENCH OF H. DE ST. GEORGES.
Continued from Page 512.
[6] Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by Stringer & Townsend, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.
BOOK SECOND.—THE VIPER'S NEST.