[Editor: This poem by Mary Eliza Fullerton was published in Moods and Melodies: Sonnets and Lyrics (1908).]
Talent and Genius
The crowd huzzas, a Genius proclaims.
The wise appraiser, cool phlegmatic Time,
Says: “Wait; the years shall weigh the rhyme”
He lays in dust the ineffectual names,
While the lost word in sudden radiance flames.
He fills the prophet’s mouth with earth and grime,
Whose brazen trumpet once rang out sublime, —
Or so it seemed to petty hopes and aims.
From pages where the mould can never cling,
Though mob-feet tramp them in ephemeral mire,
Comes out the inspiration, leaps the thing
That sets the later millions’ souls afire,
That leads a race on empyrean wing
To windows of the hall of New Desire.
Source:
Mary E. Fullerton, Moods and Melodies: Sonnets and Lyrics, Melbourne: Thomas C. Lothian, 1908, p. 34
Editor’s notes:
empyrean = according to Greek mythology, Empyrean Heaven was in the highest heaven, a place which was composed of heavenly fire
ephemeral = short-lived, something that lasts for a short time
huzza = (also spelt “huzzah”) hooray, hurrah; an exclamation of appreciation, joy, triumph
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