Soft and softlier hold me, friends! Thanks if your genial care Unbind and give me to the air. Keep your lips or finger-tips For flute or spinnet's dancing chips; I await a tenderer touch, I ask more or not so much: Give me to the atmosphere, -- Where is the wind my brother, -- where? Lift the sash, lay me within, Lend me your ears, and I begin. For gentle harp to gentle hearts The secret of the world imparts; And not to-day and not to-morrow Can drain its wealth of hope and sorrow; But day by day, to loving ear Unlocks new sense and loftier cheer. I've come to live with you, sweet friends, This home my minstrel journeying ends. Many and subtle are my lays, The latest better than the first, For I can mend the happiest days, And charm the anguish of the worst. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: 2. FEBRUARY AFTERNOON by PHILIP EDWARD THOMAS CRUCIFIXION TO THE WORLD BY THE CROSS OF CHRIST by ISAAC WATTS THE BATTLE AUTUMN OF 1862 by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER SONNET (4) by JOACHIM DU BELLAY APPLE SAUCE! by EDITH GRACE BERKNESS TO BEN JONSON; UPON OCCASION OF HIS ODE OF DEFIANCE ... by THOMAS CAREW THE CRUCIFIX by ADELBERT VON CHAMISSO |