I'VE lost the way to Sylvia's heart. What impish sprite possessed me To wander so from Sylvia's heart? I'll ask at every sage's door, And study, if mid ancient lore Old lovers drew on wrinkled charts, The scarlet road to women's hearts. I'll weary midnight lamps and call The wooing sun vain prodigal, Until I come to Sylvia's heart, And peace again has blest me. Lost lover, no! Forbear! They cannot point the road, By sea or land it does not fare, Or coiled dragon's dim abode. There is no chart Nor any road to Sylvia's heart. I've lost the way to Sylvia's heart, Oh, teach me how to find it— The way I seek to Sylvia's heart! Though long it be, though mountain-rude, By gulfs of roaring solitude It wind, if but at length it come To that my dear accustomed home, If but it end in Sylvia's heart, Be sure I shall not mind it. Ah, no, no, no! In vain, Pilgrim, in vain you'll go, And, seeking so, Must needs return again. Such roads may reach the stars, we know, Or fade in snow; They never come to Sylvia's heart. Lost wretch! Exiled from Sylvia's heart, Whose happy fortune fell there! No road, no chart to Sylvia's heart! Some desperate way in pity tell, Some triple charm, some midnight spell— Fond lover, know the charm is this: A look, a sigh, a smile, a kiss, A pleading look, a gentle sigh, And back to Sylvia's heart you fly— Then, having found it, dwell there. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GOOD-BYE DOROTHY GAYLE: THE ROAD TO BUFFALO by KAREN SWENSON THE POPPY-LAND EXPRESS by EDGAR WADE ABBOT RODNEY'S RIDE [JULY 3, 1776] by ELBRIDGE STREETER BROOKS TRUE UNTIL DEATH by ROBERT BURNS THE HILL WIFE: THE OFT-REPEATED DREAM by ROBERT FROST THE STORY OF AUGUSTUS WHO WOULD NOT HAVE ANY SOUP by HEINRICH HOFFMANN |