Xv: A Poet In Whose Heart Poem by Alexander Anderson

A poet in whose heart upsprung the life
And soul of passion, nursing with its fires
All influences of all high desires
And mighty thoughts, that found within the strife
Of mightier things their fitting sphere. And thus
He grew a Titan, shaping in his strength
A god-like image, which became at length
All worn and hollow, but still luminous
With the first touch of heaven's ordaining fingers,
And giving forth those tones that hallow still
What good we claim as ours and even ill
(For genius consecrates where'er it lingers),
But Death threw down the Memnon, and its fall
Shook worlds, and then threw echoes over all.