Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Plato
By Theodore Dwight Woolsey (18011889)I
When Plato, blindfold, humbly to the door
Came with weak steps, if he might venture o’er
The threshold doubting, or without must wait.
When he, who in the Master’s bosom lay,
And saw the mysteries nearest to the throne,
Drew nigh, and led the mild enthusiast on
Up to the Eternal Word, Heaven’s fount of day.
“There,” said the Apostle to the kindred mind,
“Dwells truth, whose shadows thou wast fain to trace;
There beauty, which thy dreams wandered to find;
There love, which swells beyond the soul’s embrace.”
Then loosed the bandage, and the sage, no more
A sage but saint, beheld and knelt to adore.