AWAKE, thou spring of speaking grace! mute rest becomes not thee! The fairest women, while they sleep, and pictures, equal be. O come and dwell in love's discourses! Old renewing, new creating. The words which thy rich tongue discourses Are not of the common rating! Thy voice is as an Echo clear which Music doth beget, Thy speech is as an Oracle which none can counterfeit: For thou alone, without offending, Hast obtained power of enchanting; And I could hear thee without ending, Other comfort never wanting. Some little reason brutish lives with human glory share; But language is our proper grace, from which they severed are. As brutes in reason man surpasses, Men in speech excel each other: If speech be then the best of graces, Do it not in slumber smother! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...COWPER'S GRAVE by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING VERSES TO HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF YORK by JOHN DRYDEN FRIENDSHIP by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE by CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE FOR CHARLIE'S SAKE by JOHN WILLIAMSON PALMER LEXINGTON; 1775 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER WEDDED (PROVENCAL AIR) by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH FROM AN EXCAVATION ON THE WARRIOR RIVER by ESTHER BARRETT ARGO |