HOW slight a thing may set one's fancy drifting Upon the dead sea of the Past! -- A view -- Sometimes an odor -- or a rooster lifting A far-off "Ooh! ooh-ooh!" And suddenly we find ourselves astray In some wood's-pasture of the Long Ago, -- Or idly dream again upon a day Of rest we used to know. I bit an apple but a moment since -- A wilted apple that the worm had spurned, -- Yet hidden in the taste were happy hints Of good old days returned. And so my heart, like some enraptured lute, Tinkles a tune so tender and complete, God's blessing, must be resting, on the fruit -- So bitter, yet so sweet! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LETTER by MUHAMMAD AL-MU'TAMID II AUSTERITY OF POETRY by MATTHEW ARNOLD EVENING by WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE TWO SKETCHES: 2. A.B. by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING COLUMBUS, THE DISCOVERER by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON HAYING by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |