Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume V. Nature. 1904. | | | | VI. Animate Nature | | To the Skylark | | William Wordsworth (1770–1850) |
| | | ETHEREAL minstrel! pilgrim of the sky! | |
| Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound | |
| Or, while the wings aspire, are heart and eye | |
| Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground? | |
| Thy nest, which thou canst drop into at will, | 5 |
| Those quivering wings composed, that music still! | |
| |
| To the last point of vision, and beyond, | |
| Mount, daring warbler!—that love-prompted strain, | |
| ’Twixt thee and thine a never-failing bond, | |
| Thrills not the less the bosom of the plain; | 10 |
| Yet mightst thou seem, proud privilege! to sing | |
| All independent of the leafy spring. | |
| |
| Leave to the nightingale her shady wood; | |
| A privacy of glorious light is thine, | |
| Whence thou dost pour upon the world a flood | 15 |
| Of harmony, with instinct more divine; | |
| Type of the wise, who soar, but never roam,— | |
| True to the kindred points of Heaven and Home! | | | | |
|
|
