| Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Second Book of Modern Verse. 1922. |
| |
| Mad Blake |
| | | William Rose Benét (1886–1950) |
| |
| |
| BLAKE saw a treeful of angels at Peckham Rye, | |
| And his hands could lay hold on the tiger’s terrible heart. | |
| Blake knew how deep is Hell, and Heaven how high, | |
| And could build the universe from one tiny part. | |
| Blake heard the asides of God, as with furrowed brow | 5 |
| He sifts the star-streams between the Then and the Now, | |
| In vast infant sagacity brooding, an infant’s grace | |
| Shining serene on his simple, benignant face. | |
| |
| Blake was mad, they say,—and Space’s Pandora-box | |
| Loosed its wonders upon him—devils, but angels indeed. | 10 |
| I, they say, am sane, but no key of mine unlocks | |
| One lock of one gate wherethrough Heaven’s glory is freed. | |
| And I stand and I hold my breath, daylong, yearlong, | |
| Out of comfort and easy dreaming evermore starting awake,— | |
| Yearning beyond all sanity for some echo of that Song | 15 |
| Of Songs that was sung to the soul of the madman, Blake! | |
| |
|
|
|
