Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Sir Edmund William Gosse 18491928Impression
Gosse-SiI
Our knowledge petrifies our rhymes;
Ah! for that reckless fire men had
When it was witty to be mad,
And lit by flaring metaphors,
When all was crazed and out of tune,—
Yet throbbed with music of the moon.
As some whose voices haunt us still,
Even we, perchance, might call our own
Their deep enchanting undertone.
Too learnéd and too over-wise,
Too much afraid of faults to be
The flutes of bold sincerity.
We blink and nod with critic eye;
We ’ve no words rude enough to give
Its charm so frank and fugitive.
The undulating streets at dark,
The brown smoke blown across the blue,
This colored city we walk through;—
The field-smell of the passing wain,
The laughter, longing, perfume, strife,
The daily spectacle of life;—
By rhymesters of a knowing time?
Ah! for the age when verse was glad,
Being godlike, to be bad and mad.
1894.