The Mind
On the Death of a Metaphysician
From An American Anthology, 1787-1900, ed. Edmund Clarence Stedman (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1900)
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.
Cite this poem
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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