Page:The nature and elements of poetry, Stedman, 1892.djvu/215

Rh consecrates, the preciousness of that which lives but in memory and echo and dreams, move the purest spirit of poesy to sweep the perfect minstrel lute. To such a poet as Robert Bridges "My song be like an air!" the note of evanescence is indeed the note of charm, and in choosing the symbols of it for the imagery of his most ravishing song, he knows that thus, and thus most surely, it shall haunt us with its immortality:—