So take these kindly, even though there be Some notes that unto other lyres belong, Stray echoes from the elder sons of song; And think how from its neighbouring native sea The pensive shell doth borrow melody. I would not do the lordly masters wrong By filching fair words from the shining throng Whose music haunts me as the wind a tree. Lo, when a stranger in soft Syrian glooms Shot through with sunset, treads the cedar dells, And hears the breezy ring of elfin bells Far down be where the white-haired cataract booms, He, faint with sweetness caught from forest smells, Bears thence, unwitting, plunder of perfumes. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BODY BREAKING by MARVIN BELL CONTRA MORTEM: THE GREAT DEATH by HAYDEN CARRUTH TO A FRIEND I CAN'T FIND by JAMES GALVIN DE LITTLE PICKANINNY'S GONE TO SLEEP by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: WILLIAM AND EMILY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS |