'GOLDEN-HAIRED, lily-white, Will you pluck me lilies? Or will you show me where they grow, Show where the limpid rill is? But is your hair of gold or light, And is your foot of flake or fire, And have you wings rolled up from sight And songs to slake desire?' 'I pluck fresh flowers of Paradise, Lilies and roses red, A bending sceptre for my hand, A crown to crown my head. I sing my songs, I pluck my flowers Sweet-scented from their fragrant trees; I sing, we sing, amid the bowers, And gather palm-branches.' 'Is there a path to Heaven My stumbling foot may tread? And will you show that way to go, That bower and blossom bed?' 'The path to Heaven is steep and straight And scorched, but ends in shade of trees, Where yet a while we sing and wait And gather palm-branches.' CAST down but not destroyed, chastened not slain: Thy Saints have lived that life, but how can I? I, who thro' dread of death do daily die By daily foretaste of an unfelt pain. Lo I depart who shall not come again; Lo as a shadow I am flitting by; As a leaf trembling, as a wheel I fly, While death flies faster and my flight is vain. Chastened not slain, cast down but not destroyed: -- If thus Thy Saints have struggled home to peace, Why should not I take heart to be as they? They too pent passions in a house of clay, Fear and desire, and pangs and ecstasies; Yea, thus they joyed who now are overjoyed. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CANTICLE OF THE RACE by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A SPIRIT PASSED BEFORE ME by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE PROGRESS OF POESY; A PINDARIC ODE by THOMAS GRAY THE INCHCAPE ROCK by ROBERT SOUTHEY PENULTIMATE PURITAN by HELEN L. BARNES ROMANCE OF DUNOIS by HORTENSE DE BEAUHARNAIS MAXIMS FOR THE OLD HOUSE: THE HEARTH by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH |