Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/274

238 And what is writ on Table Round

Of Arthur and his peers;

What sea and land discoursing say

In sidereal years.

He renders all his lore

In numbers wild as dreams,

Modulating all extremes,—

What the spangled meadow saith

To the children who have faith;

Only to children children sing,

Only to youth will spring be spring.

Who is the Bard thus magnified?

When did he sing? and where abide?

Chief of song where poets feast

Is the wind-harp which thou seest

In the casement at my side.

Æolian harp,

How strangely wise thy strain!

Gay for youth, gay for youth,

(Sweet is art, but sweeter truth,)

In the hall at summer eve

Fate and Beauty skilled to weave.

From the eager opening strings

Rung loud and bold the song.

Who but loved the wind-harp's note?

How should not the poet doat