Shapes of Clay

A man born blind received his sight

By a painful operation;

And these are things he saw in the light

Of an infant observation.

He saw a merchant, good and wise.

And greatly, too, respected,

Who looked, to those imperfect eyes,

Like a swindler undetected.

He saw a patriot address

A noisy public meeting.

And said: "Why, that's a calf. I guess.

That for the teat is bleating."

A doctor stood beside a bed

And shook his summit sadly.

"O see that foul assassin!" said

The man who saw so badly.

He saw a lawyer pleading for

A thief whom they'd been jailing,

And said: "That's an accomplice, or

My sight again is failing."

Upon the Bench a Justice sat,

With nothing to restrain him;

"'Tis strange," said the observer, "that

They ventured to unchain him."

With theologic works supplied,

He saw a solemn preacher;

"A burglar with his kit," he cried,

"To rob a fellow creature."

A bluff old farmer next he saw

Sell produce in a village,

And said: "What, what! is there no law

To punish men for pillage?"

A dame, tall, fair and stately, passed,

Who many charms united;

He thanked his stars his lot was cast

Where sepulchers were whited.

He saw a soldier stiff and stern,

"Full of strange oaths" and toddy;

But was unable to discern

A wound upon his body.

Ten square leagues of rolling ground

To one great man belonging,

Looked like one little grassy mound

With worms beneath it thronging.

A palace's well-carven stones,

Where Dives dwelt contented,

Seemed built throughout of human bones

With human blood cemented.

He watched the yellow shining thread

A silk-worm was a-spinning;

"That creature's coining gold." he said,

"To pay some girl for sinning."

His eyes were so untrained and dim

All politics, religions,

Arts, sciences, appeared to him

But modes of plucking pigeons.

And so he drew his final breath,

And thought he saw with sorrow

Some persons weeping for his death

Who'd be all smiles to-morrow.