OPEN the portal, let me in, I give to the world my best, Outside the rosy gate of fame A poet pleading prest. The gate kept fast, chill grew the night, The heedless world surged by, And shadows crowded o'er his soul, Nor star shone in the sky. But on the wind there came a voice Sweet as an angel's tone, "Ever you sing to the world's dull ear, Ever you sing to stone. Songs of a day with day shall die Merged in the gloom of night, Songs of a night forgot will fly Before the morn's cold light." "Sing to the heart and your lay shall live, Tears thou shalt call or dry, Hope to the failing thou shalt give, And angels list on high. Sing to the heart and in its shrine Ever shall live thy name, The boon thou cravest shall be thine, The key to the gate of Fame. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO A SCREEN-MAKER by MARIANNE MOORE DIRGE FOR THE LATE JAMES CURRIE, M.D., OF LIVERPOOL by LUCY AIKEN THEN AND NOW by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON THE CONTRAST; THE SUNNY SIDE by LEVI BISHOP SCOTTY'S WILD STUFF STEW by FRANCIS HUMPHRIS BROWN TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE OCEAN OF SEX by EDWARD CARPENTER |