32
THE MENTAL TRAVELLER.
- 9.
- And these are the gems of the human soul,
- The rubies and pearls of a lovesick eye,
- The countless gold of the aching heart,
- The martyr's groan and the lover's sigh.
- 10.
- They are his meat, they are his drink,
- He feeds the beggar and the poor ;
- To the wayfaring traveller
- Forever opens his door.
- 11.
- His grief is their eternal joy,
- They make the roofs and walls to ring,
- Till from the fire upon the hearth
- A little female babe doth spring.
- 12.
- And she is all of solid fire,
- And gems and gold, that none his hand
- Dares stretch to touch her baby form,
- Or wrap her in his swaddling band.
- 13.
- But she comes to the man she loves,
- If young or old, or rich or poor ;
- They soon drive out the aged host
- A beggar at another's door.
- 14.
- He wanders weeping far away,
- Until some other take him in ;
- Oft blind and aged-bent, sore distressed,
- Until he can a maiden win.
- 15.
- And to allay his freezing age
- The poor man takes her in his arms ;
- The cottage fades before his sight,
- The garden, and its lovely charms.
- 16.
- The guests are scattered through the land
- For the eye altering, alters all,
- The senses roll themselves in fear,
- And the flat earth becomes a ball.
- 17.
- Stars, moon and sun all shrink away,
- A desert vast without a bound :
- And nothing left to eat or drink,
- And a dark desert all around.
