Although the poet's egotism would seem logically to cause him to find his chief pleasure in undisturbed communion with himself, still this picture of the poet delighting in solitude cannot be said to follow, usually, upon his banishment from society. For the most part the poet is characterized by an insatiable yearning for affection, and by the stupidity and hostility of other men he is driven into proud loneliness, even while his heart thirsts for companionship.[Footnote: See John Clare, _The Stranger, The Peasant Poet, I Am_; James Gates Percival, _The Bard_; Joseph Rodman Drake, _Brorix_ (1847); Thomas Buchanan Reade, _My Heritage_; Whittier, _The Tent on the Beach_; Mrs. Frances Gage, _The Song of the Dreamer_ (1867); R. H. Stoddard, _Utopia_; Abram J. Ryan, _Poets_; Richard H. Dana, _The Moss Supplicateth for the Poet_; Frances Anne Kemble, _The Fellowship of Genius_ (1889); F. S. Flint, _Loneliness_(1909); Lawrence Hope, _My Paramour was Loneliness_ (1905); Sara Teasdale, _Alone_.] One of the most popular poet-heroes of the last century, asserting that he is in such an unhappy situation, yet declares: For me, I'd rather live With this weak human heart and yearning blood, Lonely as God, than mate with barren souls. More brave, more beautiful than myself must be The man whom I can truly call my friend. [Footnote: Alexander Smith, _A Life Drama_.] So the poet is limited to the companionship of rare souls, who make up to him for the indifference of all the world beside. Occasionally this compensation is found in romantic love, which flames all the brighter, because the affections that most people expend on many human relationships are by the poet turned upon one object. Apropos of the world's indifference to him, Shelley takes comfort in the assurance of such communion, saying to Mary, If men must rise and stamp with fury blind On his pure name who loves them--thou and I, Sweet friend! can look from our tranquillity Like lamps into the world's tempestuous night,-- Two tranquil stars, while clouds are passing by, That burn from year to year with inextinguished light. [Footnote: Introduction to _The Revolt of Islam_.]