Romance, who loves to nod and sing, With drowsy head and folded wing, Among the green leaves as they shake Far down within some shadowy lake, To me a painted paroquet Hath been -- a most familiar bird -- Taught me my alphabet to say -- To lisp my very earliest word While in the wild wood I did lie, A child -- with a most knowing eye. Of late, eternal Condor years So shake the very Heaven on high With tumult as they thunder by, I have no time for idle cares Through gazing on the unquiet sky. And when an hour with calmer wings Its down upon my spirit flings -- That little time with lyre and rhyme To while away -- forbidden things! My heart would feel to be a crime Unless it trembled with the strings. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WALL STREET PIT, MAY, 1901 by EDWIN MARKHAM OZYMANDIAS REVISITED by MORRIS GILBERT BISHOP ON MONSIEUR'S DEPARTURE by ELIZABETH I IMMORTALITY [OR, VERSE] by WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR A LEGEND OF BREGENZ by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER THE HOUSE OF LIFE: 10. THE PORTRAIT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI |