The Poet's Mind by Alfred Tennyson

I am on a Tennyson kick right now, so I that is why I am posting so many of his poems. :) I got from the library "The Complete Poetical Works of Tennyson", so that is why there is so much of him. :)

The Poet's Mind

By Alfred Tennyson

I

Vex not thou the poet's mind

With thy shallow wit;

Vex not thou the poet's mind,

For thou canst not fathom it.

Clear and bright it should be ever,

Flowing like a crystal river,

Bright as light and clear as wind.

II

Dark-brow'd sophist, come not anear;

All the place is holy ground;

Hollow smile and frozen sneer

Come not here.

Holy water will I pour

Into every spicy flower

Of the laurel shrubs that hedge it around.

The flowers would faint at your cruel cheer.

In your eye there is death,

There is frost in your breath

Which would blight the plants.

From the groves within

The wild bird's din.

In the heart of the garden the merry bird chants.

It would fall to the ground if you came in.

In the middle leaps a fountain

Like sheets lightning,

Ever brightening

With a low melodious thunder;

All day and all might it is ever drawn

From the brain of the purple mountain

Which stands in the distance yonder.

It springs on a level of bowery lawn,

And the mountain draws it from heaven above,

And it sings a song of undying love;

And yet, tho its voice be so clear and full,

You never would hear it, your ears are so dull;

So keep where you are; you are foul with sin;

It would shrink to the earth if you came in.

Blessings

~Elizabeth