Part 6 / Book 2 — TALENT AND GENIUS.
Reading edition
Talent convinces—Genius but excites; This tasks the reason, that the soul delights. Talent from sober judgment takes its birth, And reconciles the pinion to the earth; Genius unsettles with desires the mind, Contented not till earth be left behind; Talent, the sunshine on a cultured soil; Ripens the fruit, by slow degrees, for toil; Genius, the sudden Iris of the skies, On cloud itself reflects its wondrous dyes: And to the earth, in tears and glory, given, Clasps in its airy arch the pomp of Heaven! Talent gives all that vulgar critics need— And frames a horn-book for the Dull to read; Genius, the Pythian of the Beautiful, Leaves its large truths a riddle to the Dull— From eyes profane a veil the Isis screens, And fools on fools still ask—"What Hamlet means?"