We reverence such a
man, but we realize that it was not his death, but his plan for the
engagement, that saved the day.
If such is the poet's conception of his service to mankind, what is his
reward? The government of society, he returns. Emerson says,
The gods talk in the breath of the woods,
They talk in the shaken pine,
And fill the long reach of the old seashore
With dialogue divine.
And the poet who overhears
Some random word they say
Is the fated man of men
Whom the nations must obey.
[Footnote: Fragment on _The Poet_.]
What is the poet's reward? Immortality. He is confident that if his
vision is true he shall join
The choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence: live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man's search
To vaster issues.
[Footnote: George Eliot, _The Choir Invisible_.]
Does this mean simply the immortality of fame? It is a higher thing than
that.
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