Dead Man

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower..."
Yet I am cast upon this iron shore
Where Mercy has no face, and Pity is no more...

From the City of Destruction I came by fire and steam
With a white scroll in my hand—O, what a wretched dream!
They knew me not in Machine, they spat upon my name
"Bring me my bow of burning gold!"—but I was not the same

I am a dead man walking in the land of dying light
"Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night"
My grave is in my footsteps, my shroud is in the air
"Every Night and every Morn, some to Misery are born"

She had a face like morning and hair of fallen flame
One hour of stolen Heaven—then the bullet came
"The Angel that presided o'er my birth" did flee
And left me to the tigers of Eternity

I am a dead man walking in the land of dying light
"Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night"
My grave is in my footsteps, my shroud is in the air
"Every Night and every Morn, some to Misery are born"

He came from the waters—Nobody was his name—
He said: "Thou art a Poet from the Eternal Flame"
He gave me a new tongue, a spear of sharpest steel
"Without Contraries is no progression"—now I feel

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom"
I have walked it, I have bled it
"The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction"
My spirit is now wedded

I am a dead man sailing on the ocean wide
"Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night"
The boat of dying, the open shore of sleep
"To those poor souls who dwell in Night, does God appear and Light"

"For Mercy has a human heart,
Pity, a human face;
And Love, the human form divine,
And Peace, the human dress..."

"Then every man of every clime,
That prays in his distress,
Prays to the human form divine—
Love, Mercy, Pity, Peace..."