Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NEIGES D'ANTAN, by ROSAMUND MARRIOTT WATSON



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NEIGES D'ANTAN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Sunlight, and birds, and blossom on the trees
Last Line: That sun is set, and mute the spirit that sang.
Alternate Author Name(s): Tomson, Graham R.
Subject(s): Youth


SUNLIGHT, and birds, and blossom on the trees—
What, O my heart, is wanting more than these?
What shall content if these may not avail? ...
Once on a time 'twas joy enough to lie
Beneath the young leaves and the limpid sky,
A spell-bound traveller in a fairy-tale.

Oh! nevermore for us the Palace of Spring,
No more those haunted chambers echoing
Sweet, sweet and hollow, to the cuckoo's song;
Filled with a mellow lustre all day long,
And lit by golden lamps at evening.

No more the enchanted woods—their purple haze
Enveils them yet—but closed are all the ways—
The elfin meadows glimmer, deep in dew,
Misty with flowers—but we have lost the clue;
There is no path into the magic maze.

These were Youth's emissaries, every one,
The darting birds between the orchard snows.
'Twas Youth that blossomed lovelier than the rose,
And Youth that fluted in the blackbird's throat,
And Youth that steered the sun's great golden boat,
The westering golden galley of the sun.

Youth comes no more for ever—even although
The fields take flower again, and lilacs blow,
And pointed leaf-buds gather on the vine:
Even although the sun should sail and shine
Bright as of old, and all the thickets rang—
That sun is set, and mute the spirit that sang.





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