Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONG AND SINGER by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON

First Line: I SAW HIM ONCE, THE WHILE HE SAT AND PLAYED
Last Line: KEEP AN IMMORTAL YOUTH.
Subject(s): DEATH; GRIEF; SINGING & SINGERS; TIME; YOUTH; DEAD, THE; SORROW; SADNESS; SONGS;
I SAW him once, the while he sat and played --
A stripling with a shock of yellow hair --
His own rare songs, in mirth or sorrow made,
But tender all, and fair.

And as the years rolled by I saw him not,
But still his songs full many a time I sung,
And thought of him as one who has the lot
To be for ever young. . . .

I grieve with grief that to a death belongs:
How Time is stern I had forgot, in truth,
And how that men wax old, whereas their songs
Keep an immortal youth.



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