Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1153

 ALFRED NOYES

Take up the sculptor's tool! Recall the gods that die

To rule In Parian o'er the sky.

��Poet, let passion sleep

Till with the cosmic rhyme

Vou keep Eternal tone and time,

By rule of hour and flower, By strength of stern restraint

And power To fail and not to faint.

The task is hard to learn "While all the songs of Spring

Return Along the blood and sing.

Yet hear - from her deep skies, How Art, for all your pain,

Still cries Ye must be born again !

Reject the wreath of rose, Take up the crown of thorn

That shows To-night a child is born.

The far immortal face In chosen onyx fine

Enchase, Delicate line by line.

�� �