Page:Main Street and other poems, Kilmer, 1917.djvu/42

MAIN STREET AND OTHER POEMS

THE PROUD POET (continued) It is strong joy to read it, and to make it is a thing

That exalts a man with a sacreder pride than any pride on earth.

For it makes him kneel to a broken slave and set his foot on a king,

And it shakes the walls of his little soul with the echo of God's mirth.

"There was the poet Homer had the sorrow to be blind,

Yet a hundred people with good eyes would listen to him all night;

For they took great enjoyment in the heaven of his mind,

And were glad when the old blind poet let them share his powers of sight.

And there was Heine lying on his mattress all day long,

He had no wealth, he had no friends, he had no joy at all, [ 36 ]