I come from nothing; but from where Come the undying thoughts I bear? Down, through long links of death and birth, From the past poets of the earth. My immortality is there. I am like the blossom of an hour. But long, long vanished sun and shower Awoke my breath i' the young world's air. I track the past back everywhere Through seed and flower and seed and flower. Or I am like a stream that flows Full of the cold springs that arose In morning lands, in distant hills; And down the plain my channel fills With melting of forgotten snows. Voices, I have not heard, possessed My own fresh songs; my thoughts are blessed With relics of the far unknown. And mixed with memories not my own The sweet streams throng into my breast. Before this life began to be, The happy songs that wake in me Woke long ago and far apart. Heavily on this little heart Presses this immortality. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE ROSE AND THE BEE by SARA TEASDALE TO A YOUNG BEAUTY by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS ODE TO ETHIOPIA by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR THE RIGHT TO DIE by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR JAFFAR by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT: A LITANY IN TIME OF PLAGUE by THOMAS NASHE |