Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/853

 HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

How he heard the ancient helmsman Chant a song so wild and clear,

That the sailing sea-bird slowly- Poised upon the mast to hear.

Till his soul was full of longing,

And he cried, with impulse strong,

'Helmsman ' for the love of heaven, Teach me, too, that wondrous song 1 '

Wouldst thou,' so the helmsman answered,-

'Learn the secret of the sea ? Only those who brave its dangers

Comprehend its mystery ! '

��696 Chaucer

A^ old man in a lodge within a park; The chamber walls depicted all around With portraitures of huntsman, hawk, and hound, And the hurt deer. He listeneth to the lark,

Whose song comes with the sunshine through the dark Of painted glass in leaden lattice bound; He listeneth and he laughcth at the sound, Then writcth in a book like any clerk.

He is the poet of the dawn, who wrote The Canterbury Tales, and his old age Made beautiful with song; and as I read

I hear the crowing cock, 1 hear the note Of lark and linnet, and from every page Rise odours of plough'd field or flowery mead.

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