Explore "Dual" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
You say that your nature is double; that life / Seems more and more intricate, complex, and dual, / Because in your bosom there wages the strife / 'Twixt an angel of light and a beast that is cruel- / An angel who whispers your spirit has wings, / And a beast who would chain you to temporal things.
I listen with interest to all you have told, / And now let me give you my view of your trouble: / You are to be envied, not pitied; I hold / _That every strong nature is always made double_. / The beast has his purpose; he need not be slain: / He should serve the good angel in harness and chain.
The body that never knows carnal desires, / The heart that to passion is always a stranger, / Is merely a furnace with unlighted fires; / It sends forth no warmth while it threatens no danger. / But who wants to shiver in cold safety there? / _Touch flame to the fuel_! then watch it with care.
Those wild, fierce emotions that trouble your soul / Are sparks from the great source of passion and power; / Throne reason above them, and give it control, / And turn into blessing this dangerous dower. / By lightnings unguided destruction is hurled, / But chained and directed they gladden the world.