VI.

O Poet! above all men blest, Take heed that thus thou store them; Love, Hope, and Faith shall ever rest, Sweet birds (upon how sweet a nest!) Watchfully brooding o'er them. And from those flowers of Paradise Scatter thou many a blessèd seed, Wherefrom an offspring may arise To cheer the hearts and light the eyes Of after-voyagers in their need. They shall not fall on stony ground, But, yielding all their hundred-fold, Shall shed a peacefulness around, Whose strengthening joy may not be told, So shall thy name be blest of all, And thy remembrance never die; For of that seed shall surely fall In the fair garden of Eternity. Exult then in the nobleness Of this thy work so holy, Yet be not thou one jot the less Humble and meek and lowly, But let thine exultation be The reverence of a bended knee; And by thy life a poem write, Built strongly day by day-- And on the rock of Truth and Right Its deep foundations lay.