Methought the unknown God we seek in vain <br />Grew weary of the evil He had wrought— <br />The piteous litanies of human pain— <br />Till here and there some lonely souls He sought <br />To bear the message of Immortal Thought, <br />And sent them forth to wander ’midst the throng <br />Crowned with the splendour and the curse of Song. <br />But that which still was kindred to the stars <br />Fought with the flesh and moaned within its cell, <br />And beat its wings against its prison bars. <br />Thus, soaring oft to heights sublime, they fell, <br />Dragged by the flesh into the gulfs of hell; <br />Till all their days were as a tumult long <br />Between the splendour and the curse of Song. <br /> <br />Yet often ’mid the fever of distress <br />Some singer’s lips would chant so sweet a strain <br />That storm-tossed souls forgot their weariness, <br />And comfort crept about the bed of pain, <br />And men took heart and dreamt of heaven again; <br />And to the weak came hope and courage strong <br />Born of the beauty and the balm of Song. <br /> <br />But Life was bitter to the lips that sung; <br />And heavier on those souls the curse did grow <br />Who strove to speak to men an unknown tongue, <br />And mournfully their hearts did weigh and know <br />The measure of the whole world’s cruel woe, <br />And wearily they fared Time’s path along <br />Vexed by the splendour and the curse of Song. <br /> <br />Theirs was the homeless hunger of the heart— <br />Immortal thought within a mortal breast, <br />Listless they wandered through the crowded mart, <br />Who to a careless world had given their best; <br />And when Death lulled them with his wings to rest <br />What reeked they where they slumbered calm and strong <br />Crowned with the splendour of Immortal Song?<br /><br />George Essex Evans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-splendour-and-the-curse-of-song/
