Brave lads in olden musical centuries Sang, night by night, adorable choruses, Sat late by alehouse doors in April Chaunting in joy as the moon was rising. Moon-seen and merry, under the trellises, Flush-faced they play'd with old polysyllables Spring scents inspired, old wine diluted: Love and Apollo were there to chorus. Now these, the songs, remain to eternity, Those, only those, the bountiful choristers Gone -- those are gone, those unremember'd Sleep and are silent in earth for ever. So man himself appears and evanishes, So smiles and goes; as wanderers halting at Some green-embower'd house, play their music, Play and are gone on the windy highway. Yet dwells the strain enshrined in the memory Long after they departed eternally, Forth-faring tow'rd far mountain summits, Cities of men or the sounding Ocean. Youth sang the song in years immemorial: Brave chanticleer, he sang and was beautiful; Bird-haunted green tree-tops in springtime Heard, and were pleased by the voice of singing. Youth goes and leaves behind him a prodigy -- Songs sent by thee afar from Venetian Sea-grey lagunes, sea-paven highways, Dear to me here in my Alpine exile. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY by WILLIAM AUGUSTUS MUHLENBERG COMPENSATION by MARION L. BERTRAND THE NEW MOON by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN IN THE FOURTH WATCH by MYRON HENRY BROOMWELL EURIPIDES by EDWARD GEORGE EARLE LYTTON BULWER-LYTTON THE SUPREME GIFT by DAISY DEAN BUTLER LINES FROM A NOTEBOOK - JULY 1807 by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |