LE PENSEUR

Published in the Weekly Critical Review

Paris, France

25 March 1904

(page 239)

Blind agony of thought! Who turns his pen

Or brush or lyre to Art, shall see in this

The symbol of his battle against men

For men, the picture of the torturing bliss

Of his necessity; sits clutched and closed

Into himself the adept of wizard thought.

Gripped in his own embrace he sits; keen-nosed

The invisible bloodhounds ache upon the slot!

Soon, soon they are on him; soon the fangs of hate,

The sharp teeth of the infinite are in him!

Shall love, or fame, or gold, those pangs abate?

What siren with smooth voice and breast shall win him?

Never a one, be sure! In serene awe

The thinker formulates eternal law.