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Poem by Henry Timrod


Sonnets. 1. Poet! If on a Lasting Fame Be Bent


Poet! if on a lasting fame be bent
Thy unperturbing hopes, thou will not roam
Too far from thine own happy heart and home;
Cling to the lowly earth, and be content!
So shall thy name be dear to many a heart;
So shall the noblest truths by thee be taught;
The flower and fruit of wholesome human thought
Bless the sweet labors of thy gentle art.
The brightest stars are nearest to the earth,
And we may track the mighty sun above,
Even by the shadow of a slender flower.
Always, O bard, humility is power!
And thou mayst draw from matters of the hearth
Truths wide as nations, and as deep as love.



Henry Timrod


Henry Timrod's other poems:
  1. To Rosa——
  2. Love's Logic
  3. Ethnogenesis
  4. Song Composed for Washington's Birthday, and Respectfully Inscribed to the Officers and Members of the Washington Light Infantry of Charleston, February 22, 1859
  5. Lines (I Saw, or Dreamed I Saw, Her Sitting Lone)


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