A nobler life than this? Madras, 1881. Madras, 1881. Thought Thought Thought Thought Thought Spirit of Thought, not thine the songs that flow To fill with love or lull Idalian hours. Thou wert not nurtured ’mid the marish flowers, Or where the nightshade blooms, or lilies blow: But on the mountains. From those keeps of snow Thou seëst the heavens, and earth, and marts and towers Of teeming man; the battle smoke that lours Above the nations where they strive below;— The gleam of golden cohorts and the cloud Of shrieking peoples yielding to the brink— The gleam, the gold, the agony, the rage;