Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]
Was he one or many, merging
Name and fame in one,
Like a stream, to which, converging,
Many streamlets run?
. . . . . .
Who shall call his dreams fallacious?
Who has searched or sought
All the unexplored and spacious
Universe of thought?
Who in his own skill confiding,
Shall with rule and line
Mark the border-land dividing
Human and divine?
Trismegistus! Three times greatest!
How thy name sublime
Has descended to this latest
Progeny of time!
Longfellow, Hermes Trismegistus. 1
xvi:1 This poem is dated January 1882. Chambers (p. 155, n.) says: “It is noteworthy that the last poem of Longfellow was a lyrical ode in celebration of Hermes Trismegistus.”