Poems of Madison Cawein Vol. 3 — The Poet

THE POET

He stands above all worldly schism, And, gazing over life’s abysm, Beholds, within the starry range Of heaven, laws of death and change, That, through his soul’s prophetic prism, Are turned to rainbows wild and strange.

Through nature is his hope made surer Of that ideal, his allurer, By whom his life is upward drawn To mount pale pinnacles of dawn, ’Mid which all that is fairer, purer Of love and lore it comes upon.

An alkahest, that makes gold metal Of dross, his mind is--where one petal Of one wild-rose will well outweigh The piled-up facts of every-day-- Where commonplaces, there that settle, Are changed to things of heavenly ray.

He climbs by steps of stars and flowers, Companioned of the spirit Hours, And sets his feet in pastures where No merely mortal feet may fare;

And higher than the stars he towers Though lowly as the flowers there.

His comrades are his own high fancies And thoughts in which his soul romances;

And every part of heaven or earth He visits, lo, assumes new worth;

And touched with loftier traits and trances Reshines as with a lovelier birth.

He is the play, also the player;

The word that’s said, likewise the sayer;

And in the books of heart and head There is no thing he has not read;

Of time and tears he is the weigher, And mouthpiece ’twixt the quick and dead.

He dies: but, mounting ever higher, Wings Phœnix-like from out his pyre Above our mortal day and night, Clothed on with sempiternal light;

And raimented in thought’s fine fire Flames on in everlasting flight.

Unseen, yet seen, on heights of visions, Above all praise and world derisions, His spirit and his deathless brood Of dreams fare on, a multitude, While on the pillar of great missions His name and place are granite-hewed.