Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Frederic William Henry Myers 1843–1901

A Song

Myers-Fr

THE POURING music, soft and strong,

Some God within her soul has lit,

Her face is rosy with the song

And her gray eyes are sweet with it.

A woman so with singing fir’d,

Has earth a lovelier sight than this?

Oh, he that look’d had soon desir’d

Those lips to fasten with a kiss.

But let not him that race begin

Who seeks not toward its utmost goal;

Give me an hour for drinking in

Her fragrant and her early soul.

To happier hearts I leave the rest,

Who less and more than I shall know,

For me, world-weary, it is best

To listen for an hour and go:

To lift her hand, and press, and part,

And think upon her long and long,

And bear for ever in my heart

The tender traces of a song.