Being in himself a type of all mankind.
For aspirations dim at first possessed
Him only, rising vaguely in his dreams,
Till in ripe years his early musings changed
To inspiration and the light of the soul,
Then vision came, and in the light he saw
What he had hoped now openly revealed;
And much besides - the inmost soul of things
,And "beauty" as the crown of life itself,
Ineffable, transcending mortal form;
For robed in light, no longer fantasy,
Before his gaze the true "ideal" stood,
Sublimely fair, beyond conception, clothed
In beauty and divinest symmetry.
Yet pined he not like him of Patmos when
In dreaming ecstasy upon the hills
Beneath the moon he saw his love unveiled;
for well he knew the crowning of his life
Was in that vision and would be fulfilled.
Nay, was fulfilled, for henceforth by his side
A radiant being stood, his guiding light
And polar star, that as a magnet held
Him in the hold of every-during love!
- William Sharpe, The Dual Image, quoted in Masters of British Literature, Volume B (Damrosch Series)
