676. The Half-asleep

O FOR the mighty wakening that aroused
The old-time Prophets to their missions high;
And to blind Homer’s inward sunlike eye
Show’d the heart’s universe where he caroused
Radiantly; the Fishers poor unhoused,	5
And sent them forth to preach divinity;
And made our Milton his great dark defy,
To the light of one immortal theme espoused!
But half asleep are those now most awake;
And save calm-thoughted Wordsworth, we have none	10
Who for eternity put time at stake,
And hold a constant course as doth the sun:
We yield but drops that no deep thirstings slake;
And feebly cease ere we have well begun.