Excerpt from The Child of the Nations
Great priest of the moon-god, Ptah-Hotep called,
Whose earthly body lies beside the stream
Of Nile, near Memphis, but whose words of wisdom
Live and find their way to many lands;
Who after various incarnations here
And elsewhere clos"d th" circuit as the poet
Homer, who from Chian isle did wander
To Asiatic shores, where "mid the scenes
Of which he wrote he liv"d and died almost
Unknown, yet lives to-day throughout the word,
Rever"d and lov"d by all who know his verse;
Who came, but not in earthly guise, to help
Th" Roman Vergil write the wand"rings of
?neas; yet not satisfied in giving
Man these great, immortal poems, still
Desir"d to pen another message when
Th" brain and hand made ready to receive
Prophetic word should come: it is not strange
That he should seek an instrument to-day
On shores where liberty is larger than
In other lands; nor that in coming to
America a woman he should choose;
For here a goddess holds the light as truly
As the pole in Athens Pallas held.
Why the great, immortal Homer came
To me, I cannot tell; but when he came
And how, I shall relate.
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