Poems, now first collected/On a Great Man whose Mind is Clouding

by Edmund Clarence Stedman

 

ON A GREAT MAN WHOSE MIND IS CLOUDING

That sovereign thought obscured? That vision clear
Dimmed in the shadow of the sable wing,
And fainter grown the fine interpreting
Which as an oracle was ours to hear!
Nay, but the Gods reclaim not from the seer
Their gift,—although he ceases here to sing,
And, like the antique sage, a covering
Draws round his head, knowing what change is near.

1882