[BNP/E3, 16A – 47]

Happy the halt[1], the maimed, the mad, the blind,

All who, stamped strange[2] in body or wild show,

Owe no duty’s allegiance to mankind

Nor stand a weighing in the scales we owe![3]

But those whose[4] Fate did in the soul curtail

Without excess[5] or |visible mischance|,

Must bear accusing eyes where’er they fail,

Fixed in the orbits of men’s ignorance.

I, whose sick will is maimed and blind and mad,

Who in mine act or action am but found

In act but thought, in action never had[6]

In the unseen steps of purpose e’er postponed,

     Can I complain aloud that men should be

     Such as do Hamlet weep[7] and despise me?

__________

 
[1] halt /sick\
[2] strange /ill\
[3] owe /know\!/;\
[4] But /For\ those whose/om\
[5] excess /distress\
[6] had /made\
[7] weep /love\