Daphne Kieffer Thompson. An Old Song. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

An Old Song

By Daphne Kieffer Thompson


ALL day an old, old song
Has echoed in my mind
And will not be dismissed—
A song that tinkles
Of youth’s endearing charms	5
And love that will not die.

It clashes with the thoughts
Of this iron time—
Its chasms of hate,
Its lines of cleavage,	10
Its unsparing sight
And bitter revelations.
The plough is going through us;
We are aghast and stern.

Still tinkles faintly	15
Out of a hundred years
The sweetness of the little song.
It sounds like some faint hidden brook
In a lost fairy land
Of the long ago.	20