Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BAYARD TAYLOR, by MARGARET ELIZABETH MUNSON SANGSTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BAYARD TAYLOR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A plaintive monotone of pain
Last Line: Whose royal work shall ever live.
Alternate Author Name(s): Van Deth, Gerrit, Mrs.
Subject(s): Taylor, Bayard (1825-1878)


A PLAINTIVE monotone of pain
Sighs through our land, bereft to-day,
A dissonance within the strain
So lately set to measures gay.
We mourn for one too early lost
From life and love and labors high,—
Gone, when his country prized him most,
And dead beneath a foreign sky.

From Norway's shadowy groves of pine,
From far Palmyra's ruins gray,
From cloud-capped Alp and Apennine,
From ocean isle and rock-girt bay,
Come notes to swell the tearful rune—
Which trees and winds and surges blend—
For him, with pilgrim staff and shoon,
Who made each leaf and flower a friend.

His was the poet's heaven-born fire,
And his the harp of troubadour;
With hand of strength he swept the lyre,
The master's touch, so swift and sure.
No stain obscured his well-earned fame;
His manhood's honor whitely shone;
And ever, as we spoke his name,
We proudly thought "He is our own."

A youth, he sought with eager hope
The busy city's crowded ways.
What doors before his feet should ope!
What dreams grow real at his gaze!
The "Open Sesame" he tried
Had magic in it as of old;
The world is hard, the world is wide,
But toil and truth possess its gold.

To-day the Muses veil their eyes,
As, hushed around that laurelled brow,
The brave, the beautiful, the wise,
In stress of deep bereavement bow;
But, in Valhalla's stately seats,
The glad immortals haste to give
Such welcome as he only meets
Whose royal work shall ever live.





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