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AN INVOCATION TO POESY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Stay with me, poesy! Playmate of childhood!
Last Line: Source of true happiness, light of my soul!
Subject(s): Poetry & Poets


STAY with me, Poesy! playmate of childhood!
Friend of my manhood! delight of my youth!
Roamer with me over valley and wildwood,
Searching for loveliness, groping for Truth.
Stay with me, dwell with me, spirit of Poesy;
Dark were the world if thy bloom should depart;
Glory would cease in the sunlight and starlight,
Freshness and courage would fade from my heart.

Stay with me, comfort me, now more than ever,
When years stealing over me lead me to doubt
If men, ay, and women, are all we believed them
When we two first wandered the green earth about!
Stay with me, strengthen me, soother, adorner,
Lest knowledge, not wisdom, should cumber my brain,
And tempt me to sit in the chair of the scorner,
And say, with sad Solomon, all things are vain.

Stay with me, lend me thy magical mirror,
Show me the darkness extinguished in light;
Show me to-day's little triumph of Error
Foiled by to-morrow's great triumph of Right!
Stay with me, nourish me, robe all creation
In colors celestial of amber and blue;
Magnify littleness, glorify commonness,
Pull down the false and establish the true.

Stay with me, Poesy! Let me not stagnate!
Despairing with fools, or believing with knaves,
That men must be either the one or the other, --
Victors or victims, oppressors or slaves!
Stay with me, cling to me, while there is life in me!
Lead me, assist me, direct and control!
Be in the shade what thou wert in the sunshine,
Source of true happiness, light of my soul!





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