Nihil Humani Alienum

In the loud waking world I come and go, And yet the twofold gates of dreams are mine; I have seen the battle-lightnings round me shine, And won the stillness of Hawaiian snow; The votary’s sad surrender do I know; Joy have I had of passion and of wine; Nor shines the light of poesy less divine Though science’s white cressets round me glow. Yet never in me are these things at feud; They make one sum of rapture; in my heart Their memories rise and glow, a living good; Dreams, banquets, battles, prayers, carousals, art, All form for me a vital brotherhood; From nothing human let me hold apart!

Collection: 
English
Titus Munson Coan

More from Poet

  • Nihil Humani Alienum

    In the loud waking world I come and go, And yet the twofold gates of dreams are mine; I have seen the battle-lightnings round me shine, And won the stillness of Hawaiian snow; The votary’s sad surrender do I know; Joy have I had of passion and of wine; Nor shines the light of poesy less divine...

  • The Crystal

    Olympian sunlight is the Poet’s sphere; Yet of his rapt unconscious thought at play The wintry stream gave image but to-day, When first the frost his magic made appear; The darkling water dreamed, and mirrored clear, A thousand miles adown, the clouds’ array, Nor any gleam or stirring did betray...

  • A Dream of Flowers

    Even at their fairest still I love the less The blossoms of the garden than the blooms Won by the mountain climber: theirs the tints And forms that most delight me,—theirs the charm That lends an aureole to the azure heights Whereon they flourish, children of the dews And mountain streamlets...