| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. Poetry a Daily Bread | | By Henry Ellison (1811–1880) |
| | | O MUSE, thy nourishment, which unto some | |
| Is but as manna in the wilderness, | |
| Found but in seasons of their strange distress | |
| And sorrows, which unseal lips elsewhile dumb, | |
| And make the waters in dry places come,— | 5 |
| The heart’s Castalian springs!—to me is less | |
| Than this, yet more;—the daily bread I bless, | |
| And live on; household bread, and made at home! | |
| And if, with no profane comparison, | |
| Reader, I break and offer it to thee, | 10 |
| ’T is as a sacrament, a sublime one, | |
| The sacrament of Man’s Humanity! | |
| Of which partaking, I would have thee none | |
| But as thy Brethren view, whate’er they be. | | | | |
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