ONE ballade more before we say good-night, O dying Muse, one mournful ballade more! Then let the new men fall to their delight, The Impressionist, the Decadent, a score Of other fresh fanatics, who adore Quaint demons, and disdain thy golden shrine; Ah! faded goddess, thou wert held divine When we were young! But now each laurelled head Has fallen, and fallen the ancient glorious line; The last is gone, since Banville too is dead. Peace, peace a moment, dolorous Ibsenite! Pale Tolstoist, moaning from the Euxine shore! Psychology, to dreamland take thy flight! And, fell Heredity, forbear to pour Drop after drop thy dose of hellebore, For we look back to-night to ruddier wine And gayer singing than these moans of thine! Our skies were azure once, our roses red, Our poets once were crowned with eglantine; The last is gone, since Banville too is dead. With flutes and lyres and many a lovely rite Through the mad woodland of our youth they bore Verse, like pure ichor in a chrysolite, Secret yet splendid, and the world forswore, For one brief space, the mocking mask it wore. Then failed, then fell those children of the vine, -- Sons of the sun, -- and sank in slow decline; Pulse after pulse their radiant lives were shed; To silence we their vocal names consign; The last is gone, since Banville too is dead. ENVOI Prince-jeweller, whose facet-rhymes combine All hues that glow, all rays that shift and shine, Farewell! thy song is sung, thy splendour fled. No bards to Aganippe's wave incline; The last is gone, since Banville too is dead. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FLAMING CIRCLE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE HUNTING OF THE SNARK: FIT 3. THE BAKER'S TALE by CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON CENTENNIAL MEDITATION OF COLUMBIA by SIDNEY LANIER THE ANGEL'S WHISPER by SAMUEL LOVER LOOKING FORWARD by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON DISCIPLINE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH |