New Poems by Francis Thompson
page 20 of 153 (13%)
page 20 of 153 (13%)
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The drink that is divine,
Maketh the kind earth waste, And breath intolerable. Ah me! How shall my mouth content it with mortality? Lo, secret music, sweetest music, From distances of distance drifting its lone flight, Down the arcane where Night would perish in night, Like a god's loosened locks slips undulously: Music that is too grievous of the height For safe and low delight, Too infinite, For bounded hearts which yet would girth the sea! So let it be, Though sweet be great, and though my heart be small: So let it be, O music, music, though you wake in me No joy, no joy at all; Although you only wake Uttermost sadness, measure of delight, Which else I could not credit to the height, Did I not know, That ill is statured to its opposite; Did I not know, And even of sadness so, Of utter sadness make, Of extreme sad a rod to mete The incredible excess of unsensed sweet, |
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