| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | All Sung | | By Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947) |
| | | WHAT shall I sing when all is sung | |
| And every tale is told, | |
| And in the world is nothing young | |
| That was not long since old? | |
| |
| Why should I fret unwilling ears | 5 |
| With old things sung anew | |
| While voices from the old dead year | |
| Still go on singing too? | |
| |
| A dead man singing of his maid | |
| Makes all my rhymes in vain, | 10 |
| Yet his poor lips must fade and fade, | |
| And mine shall sing again. | |
| |
| Why should I strive thro’ weary moons | |
| To make my music true? | |
| Only the dead men know the tunes | 15 |
| The live world dances to. | | | | |
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