Others are wise - my creed is this

To cross the ocean for a kiss.

CALMLY ye glance into my heart

And say my course was not the best,

That passionate thought and fevered pulse

Could foster nothing but unrest;

That I am not a manly man,

Have little health and still less power;

That ye are truly made to live,

I but the victim of the hour.

I grant it all. Your worthiness

I feel as much as any one,

For ye have gained the praise of all,

I the esteem of almost none.

Yet were there no such men as I

Your honor lacked its noblest crown;

It were like a deserted fane,

With none to worship and fall down.

Ye say that I should learn to act,

Not waste myself in sighs;

Should learn to govern and control

The thoughts that in me rise;

Should train myself for real life,

The life of serious men;

Be practical and not aspire

To thoughts beyond our ken.

Alas! Ye know not that to me

Life is a grasp at ecstasy;

A loosening hold, a broken wing

'Twixt earth and heaven fluttering.

Ye know not that the serious joy

Ye priase is full of earth's alloy;

Of sense to mean ambition wed

And men content to get their bread.

With you a man is not a brother.

Ye leave a place for one another,

But trust your friendships to the chance

Of ever-varying circumstance.

He that lives next to you is dear:

To-morrow if he is not here

Ye strive by no enthusiasm

Of written love to bridge the chasm.

"In absence surely love must fade;

It cannot in the scale be weighed

With comfort or with business gain," -

Ye part and feel no thrill of pain.

Yet I would rather life should be

A shadow-haunted vale of tears,

Would rather drink of misery

Than thus to pass unfeeling years.

Yea, truly were my soul to choose,

Rather than be so worldly wise,

'T would pass through darkest realms of pain

In passion of self-sacrifice.

'T would learn the secret of the grief

In dread Medusa's quivering eye,

Mourn with the mad, to none refuse

The throbbing hand of sympathy.

And if in sorrow, shame, and scorn

Its life at last should have an end,

Prouder than yours its epitaph,

"True worshipper and faithful friend."