| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| A Poet’s Thought |
| | | Barry Cornwall (1787–1874) |
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| TELL me, what is a poet’s thought? | |
| Is it on the sudden born? | |
| Is it from the starlight caught? | |
| Is it by the tempest taught, | |
| Or by whispering morn? | 5 |
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| Was it cradled in the brain? | |
| Chain’d awhile, or nurs’d in night? | |
| Was it wrought with toil and pain? | |
| Did it bloom and fade again, | |
| Ere it burst to light? | 10 |
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| No more question of its birth: | |
| Rather love its better part! | |
| ’T is a thing of sky and earth, | |
| Gathering all its golden worth | |
| From the Poet’s heart. | 15 |
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