George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.
The Poet's ObedienceJames Russell Lowell (18191891)
O
Only as thou the same low voice canst hear
Which is the morning song of every sphere
And which thou erewhile heardst beside the sea
Or in the still night flowing solemnly,
Only so love this rhyme and so revere;
All else cast from thee, haply with a tear
For one who, rightly taught, yet would not be
A voice obedient; some things I have seen
With a clear eye, and otherwhile the earth
With a most sad eclipse hath come between
That sunlight which is mine by right of birth
And what I know with grief I ought to have been,—
Yet is short-coming even something worth.