CUERVO - Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia

PARACELSUS
Know me, and look on me, and speak to me
Once more-but only once I His hollow cheek
Looked all night long as though a creeping laugh
At his own state were just about to break
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From the dying man: my brain swam, my throat swelled,
And yet I could not turn away. In truth,
They told me how, when first brought here, he seemed
Resolved to live-to lose no faculty;
Thus striving to keep up his shattered strength,
Until they bore him to this stilling cell :
When straight his features fell-an hour made white
The flushed face and relaxed the quivering limb;
Only the eye remained intense awhile,
As though it recognised the tomb-like place;
And then he lay as here he lies.
Ay, here I
Hfre is earth's noblest, nobly garlanded-
Her bravest champion, with his well-won meed­
Her best achievement, her sublime amends
FOI countless generations, fleeting fast
Anj followed by no trace i-the creature-god
She instances when angels would dispute
The title of her brood to rank with them­
Angels, this is our angel I-those bright forms
We clothe with purple, crown and call to thrones,
Are human, but not his: those are but men
Whom other men press round and kneel before­
Those palaces are dwelt in by mankind;
Higher provision is for him you seek
Amid our pomps and glories: see it here I
Behold earth's paragon I Now, raise thee, clay t
God I Thou art Love! I build my faith on that I
Even as I watch beside thy tortured child,
Unconscious whose hot tears fall fast by him,
So doth thy right hand guide us through the world
Wherein we stumble. God I what shall we say?
How has he sinned? How else should he have done?
Surely he sought thy praise-thy praise, for all
He might be busied by the task so much
As to forget awhile its proper end.
Dost thou well, Lord? Thou canst not but pref r
That I should range myself upon his side-
How could he stop at every step to set
Thy glory forth? Hadst Thou but granted him
Success, thy honour would have crowned success,
A halo round a star. Or, say he erred,-
Save rum, dear God; it will be like lhee: bathe him
In light and life 1 Tlwu art not made like us;
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