YOU say there's a sameness in my style, You long for the savor of something new, You tell me that love is not worth while, You wish for verse that is strong and true. Well, I will leave the choice to you -- Prose or poetry, short or long, Only we'll let this be the cue -- Love is excluded from the song. I'll sing of some old cathedral pile, Where, as we sit in a carved oak pew, The sunlight illumines nave and aisle, And peace seems thrilling us through and through. No? you don't think that will do? How would you like a busy throng, A battle, Elizabeth's retinue? But love is excluded from the song. A journey, a voyage, a tropic isle, The hush of the forest, the ocean blue, A lament for all that is false and vile, A paean for all that is good and true, Pompadour's fan, or Louis's queue, Mournful or merry, right or wrong. Subjects, you'll find, are not so few, But love is excluded from the song. Oh! for a song of yourself you sue! Do you think you can trap me? You are wrong. Sing of your eyes and your smile and -- Pooh! Love is excluded from the song. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SECOND BROTHER; ACT 1, SCENE 2 by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES ON THE VIRGINITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY AND JOHANNA SOUTHCOTT by WILLIAM BLAKE THE MONK AND THE PEASANT by MARGARET E. BRUNER DAWN by MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT OCTOBER by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON THE CANTERBURY TALES: THE REEVE'S PROLOGUE by GEOFFREY CHAUCER A ROUNDUP LULLABY by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR. FOUR METRICAL EXPERIMENTS: 4. PINDARIC by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |