Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Philip Bourke Marston 1850–87

To the Spirit of Poetry

ALL things are changed save thee,—thou art the same,

Only perchance more dear, as one friend grows

When other friends have turn’d away. Who knows

With what strange joy thou didst my life inflame

Before I took upon my lips the name

Which vows me to thy service? Come thou close;

For to thy feet to-day my being flows,

As when, a boy, for comforting I came.

Thou, whose transfiguring touch makes speech divine,—

Whose eyes are deeper than deep seas or skies,—

Warm with thy fire this heart, these lips of mine,

Lighten the darkness with thy luminous eyes,

Till all the quivering air about me shine,

And I have gain’d my spirit’s Paradise.