I MORE than once have heard, at night, A song, like those thy lips have given, And it was sung by shapes of light, Who seem'd, like thee, to breathe of heaven! But this was all a dream of sleep, And I have said, when morning shone, "Oh! why should fairy fancy keep These wonders for herself alone?" I knew not then that fate had lent Such tones to one of mortal birth; I knew not then that Heaven had sent A voice, a form like thine on earth! And yet, in all that flowery maze Through which my life has loved to tread, When I have heard the sweetest lays From lips of dearest lustre shed; When I have felt the warbled word From beauty's mouth of perfume sighing, Sweet as music's hallow'd bird Upon a rose's bosom lying! Though form and song at once combined Their loveliest bloom and softest thrill, My heart hath sigh'd, my heart hath pined For something softer, lovelier still! Oh! I have found it all, at last, In thee, thou sweetest living lyre, Through which the soul hath ever pass'd Its harmonizing breath of fire! All that my best and wildest dream, In fancy's hour, could hear or see Of music's sigh or beauty's beam Are realized, at once, in thee! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOW TO GET ON IN SOCIETY by JOHN BETJEMAN CONTEMPLATIONS by ANNE BRADSTREET SONNET TO A NEGRO IN HARLEM by HELENE JOHNSON TO A CERTAIN CIVILIAN by WALT WHITMAN BUONAPARTE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE BRIDES' TRAGEDY: ACT 3, SCENE 2 by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES A PRAYER by HENRY MAXIMILIAN BEERBOHM |