Page:Works of William Blake; poetic, symbolic, and critical (1893) Volume 2.djvu/46

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 * 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.