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To One In Bedlam

Topics: classic

With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars,     Surely he hath his posies, which they tear and twine;     Those scentless wisps of straw, that miserably line     His strait, caged universe, whereat the dull world stares,     Pedant and pitiful. O, how his rapt gaze wars     With their stupidity! Know they what dreams divine     Lift his long, laughing reveries like enchaunted wine,     And make his melancholy germane to the stars'?     O lamentable brother! if those pity thee,     Am I not fain of all thy lone eyes promise me;     Half a fool's kingdom, far from men who sow and reap,     All their days, vanity? Better than mortal flowers,     Thy moon-kissed roses seem: better than love or sleep,     The star-crowned solitude of thine oblivious hours!

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"With delicate, mad hands, behind his sordid bars,..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Ernest Christopher Dowson delivers a powerful performance in "To One In Bedlam"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

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