As sweet as the breath that goes From the lips of the white rose, As weird as the elfin lights That glimmer of frosty nights, As wild as the winds that tear The curled red leaf in the air, Is the song I have never sung. In slumber, a hundred times I have said the mystic rhymes, But ere I open my eyes This ghost of a poem flies; Of the interfluent strains Not even a note remains: I know by my pulses' beat It was something wild and sweet, And my heart is strangely stirred By an unremembered word! I strive, but I strive in vain, To recall the lost refrain. On some miraculous day Perhaps it will come and stay; In some unimagined Spring I may find my voice, and sing The song I have never sung. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SHADOW-CASTING by JAMES GALVIN THE WHITE LIGHTS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON UPON THE IMAGE OF DEATH by ROBERT SOUTHWELL PRESCIENCE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TO SWEET MEAT, SOUR SAUCE; AN IMITATION OF THEOCRITUS OR ANACREON by PHILIP AYRES TO DR. AIKIN ON HIS COMPLAINING THAT SHE NEGLECTED HIM by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |