The Mind

On the Death of a Metaphysician

by George Santayana 1863–1952

From An American Anthology, 1787-1900, ed. Edmund Clarence Stedman (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1900)

The Mind

Unhappy dreamer, who outwinged in flight
The pleasant region of the things I love,
And soared beyond the sunshine, and above
The golden cornfields and the dear and bright
Warmth of the hearth,--blasphemer of delight,
Was your proud bosom not at peace with Jove,
That you sought, thankless for his guarded grove,
The empty horror of abysmal night?
Ah, the thin air is cold above the moon!
I stood and saw you fall, befooled in death,
As, in your numbed spirit's fatal swoon,
You cried you were a god, or were to be;
I heard with feeble moan your boastful breath
Bubble from depths of the Icarian sea.

MLA

Santayana, George. “On the Death of a Metaphysician.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/santayana/6/.

Chicago

Santayana, George. “On the Death of a Metaphysician.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/santayana/6/.

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