The dawn-wind sighs through the trees, and a blackbird,
waking,
Sings in a dream to me of dreams and the dying
Spring,
Calls from the darkened heart of the wood over light
leaves shaking,
Calls from deep hollows of Night where the grey dews
cling.
Soul of the dawn! Dear Voice—O fount pellucid and
golden!
Triumph and Hope and Despair meet in your magical
flow,
Better than all things seen, and best of the
unbeholden,
Song of the strange things known that we shall not
know.
Yours not the silent months, the splendid burden of
Summer,
Dark with the pomp of leaves, and heavy with flowers
full blown.
Spring and the Dawn are your kingdoms, O Spring’s first
comer;
Lordship and largesse of youth, they are all your
own.
Song of songs, and Joy of joys, and Sorrow of
sorrows,
Now in a distant forest of dream, and now in mine
ear,
Who would take thought of eld or the shadow of songless
morrows?
Who would say, ‘Youth is past,’ while you keep faith
with the year?
MLA citation:
Watson, Rosamund Marriott. “The Song of Songs.” The Pageant, 1897, p. 63. Pageant Digital Edition, edited by Frederick King and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, 2019-2021. Yellow Nineties 2.0, Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2021. https://1890s.ca/pag2-watson-songs/