When I was young, we dwelt in a vale
  By a misty fen that rang all night,
And thus it was the maidens pale
I knew so well, whose garments trail
  Across the reeds to a window light.

The fen had every kind of bloom,
  And for every kind there was a face,
And a voice that has sounded in my room
Across the sill from the outer gloom.
  Each came singly unto her place,

But all came every night with the mist;
  And often they brought so much to say
Of things of moment to which, they wist,
One so lonely was fain to list,
  That the stars were almost faded away

Before the last went, heavy with dew,
  Back to the place from which she came—
Where the bird was before it flew,
Where the flower was before it grew,
  Where bird and flower were one and the same.

And thus it is I know so well
  Why the flower has odor, the bird has song.
You have only to ask me, and I can tell.
No, not vainly there did I dwell,
  Nor vainly listen all the night long.

Love seeketh not Itself to please.
Nor for itself hath any care;
But for another gives its ease.
And builds a Heaven in Hells despair.

     So sung a little Clod of Clay,
     Trodden with the cattle’s feet;
     But a Pebble of the brook.
     Warbled out these metres meet.

Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to Its delight;
Joys in anothers loss of ease.
And builds a Hell in Heavens despite.

O World! O Life! O Time!
On whose last steps I climb,
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more—Oh, never more!

Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight:
Fresh spring, and summer, and winter ****
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more—Oh, never more!

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle—
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea—
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?

And what poem might suit thou, love?
When at once I thought of a nonet,
A voice whispered from clouds above,
"Nay, better would be a sonnet."

In a while before thinking twice,
Another sharply pierced mine ear;
"Better would it be in free verse,
Lend no ear unto Shakespeare."

When I thought of one of a kind,
Another said, "better would be a ballad,
And if thou art not mentally blind,
It goes down well while takin' a salad."

Shortly after I'd employed this clue,
Another said, "better would be a limerick
Whilst taking some gin and rotten stew,
To win so fair a maiden that's the trick."

Nay, quoth another, obsolete are all rules,
To neither lend no ear nor Lear,
For he's the chief of the realm of fools,
A crown he holds for many a year.

"Screech no more like a wingless bird,"
Quoth another. "Thy queen's beauty
Is but peerless and thee, blind bard,
Thy quill canst not tell of her beauty?"

At this , I bethought of her raven hair,
Her ivory skin gaily than a silvern moon,
Her eyes that no luster of star doth near,
And I- I fully drowned in a sea of shame.


©Kikodinho Edward Alexandros,
Los Angels, California, USA.
          10/31/2018