The Seraph And The Poet

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

    The seraph sings before the manifest
    God-One, and in the burning of the Seven,
    And with the full life of consummate
    Heaving beneath him like a mother's
    Warm with her first-born's slumber in that
    The poet sings upon the earth grave-riven,
    Before the naughty world, soon self-forgiven
    For wronging him, and in the darkness prest
    From his own soul by worldly weights.
    Even so, Sing, seraph with the glory! heaven is high;
    Sing, poet with the sorrow! earth is low:
    The universe's inward voices cry
    'Amen' to either song of joy and woe:
    Sing, seraph, poet, sing on equally!