Song, since thou wilt not grasp One solid chord of all The harp-strung universe, nor clasp A human breast, nor on a brow let fall One kiss of warmth, nor give responding strain To aught but echoes back thine own refrain -- Since else seems fruitless, since the asp Rifles the flower life holds And 'gainst us darts its glittering head Of failure -- sweep us in thy velvet folds Of leaves that fall, thy music round us bring With throb unmeasured, and the words unsaid, Till that with thee we sing -- Thyself, the all and none, The unseen divinely fair, Attained in unattaining -- glad despair And maimed victory against the sun. 'Tis thou alone couldst call The atom and the star remote To be unto eternity -- Voice of Cumaea's sibyl, golden throat Of Patmos, singing in the sparrow's fall, In hissing sands against the Sphinx's brow, In dawns on Parthenon, Or in the gluttonous caverns of the sea -- Song of eternal azure, thou That fail'st us never, lead thy minstrels on. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 12 by JAMES JOYCE LET IT BE YOU by SARA TEASDALE |