These are the joyous songs The shy sea children sing, When the moon goes down the west, Soft as a pale moth wing; When the gnat and the bumblebee In the gauze of sleep are fast, And a fairy summer dream Is the only thing will last. These are the ever-songs The heart of the sea will sing, When ash-coloured birds are building, And lilac thickets ring; When June is an open road For every soul that stirs; When scarlet voices summon, And not a foot defers. These are the twilight songs Out of the simple North, Where the marchers of the night In silent troops go forth; Where Alioth sails and sails Forever round the pole, And wonder brings no sad Disquietude of soul. And all their bodily beauty Must flower a moment and die, As the rain goes down the sea-rim, The streamers up the sky; Till time as a falling echo Shall sift them over and o'er, And the wind between the stars Can tell their words no more. Yet the lyric beat and cry Which frets the poor frail things Shall pass from joy to joy Up through a thousand springs, Teasing the sullen years Out of monotony, As reedbirds pour their rapture By the unwintered sea. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LA NOCHE TRISTE by ROBERT FROST ON DEATH, WITHOUT EXAGGERATION by WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA IN ROMNEY MARSH by JOHN DAVIDSON A COUNTRY BURIAL by EMILY DICKINSON THE RIVER-MERCHANT'S WIFE: A LETTER by LI PO THE SECOND COMING by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |