i read all the poets of Persia and Arabia
and found that no man was ever great
——by imitation.
i have long believed that tenderness must be spacious,
——the superstitious are often melancholy,
——the same number cannot be even and odd.
philosophers are easily deceived.
——little can be said,
————things steal away.
what experiment planned opinion
——and made mind scarcely possible?
a thousand questions about the necessity of sleep,
but when the sage finds that you are not
——what you seemed
every month drops fruits, chills,
——wearied attention to the crab’s mitigated fervors.
the cause of his uneasiness pouring upon this country,
——i cannot recall anything he uttered.
i discover within me no power.
yesterday weary visits from women.
they came again and again.
——each knew much:
endless calculations and fluid conversation,
all the minute details of a domestic day;
though the illusions of one
——are not of the other.
with the inheritance of the sun,
——i thought myself honored.
i have left the world to return to Abissinia.
Author: Kevin Shlosberg
Location: San Jose, CA
Source: Samuel Johnson’s The History of Rasselas (available online)