O THOUGHT! O Memory! gems for ever heaping <br />High in the illumined chambers of the mind, <br />And thou, divine Imagination! keeping <br />Thy lamp's lone star 'mid shadowy hosts enshrined; <br />How in one moment rent and disentwined, <br />At Fever's fiery touch, apart they fall, <br />Your glorious combinations!-broken all, <br />As the sand-pillars by the desert's wind <br />Scatter'd to whirling dust!-Oh, soon uncrown'd! <br />Well may your parting swift, your strange return, <br />Subdue the soul to lowliness profound, <br />Guiding its chasten'd vision to discern <br />How by meek Faith Heaven's portals must be pass'd <br />Ere it can hold your gifts inalienably fast.<br /><br />Felicia Dorothea Hemans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/thoughts-during-sickness/
