Monday, November 14, 2011

and feel a moment's space

Aye, while your common men
Lay telegraphs, gauge railroads, reign, reap, dine
And dust the faulty carpets of the world
For kings to walk on, or our president,
The poet suddenly will catch them up
With his voice like a thunder,--'This is soul,
This is life, this word is being said in heaven,
Here's God down on us! what are you about?'
How all those workers start amid their work,
Look round, look up, and feel, a moment's space
That carpet-dusting, though a pretty trade,
Is not the imperative labor after all.

E.B.B., Aurora Leigh

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