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Title: Aeolian Harp
Author: William Allingham [
More Titles by Allingham]
What is it that is gone, we fancied ours?
Oh what is lost that never may be told?--
We stray all afternoon, and we may grieve
Until the perfect closing of the night.
Listen to us, thou gray Autumnal Eve,
Whose part is silence. At thy verge the clouds
Are broken into melancholy gold;
The waifs of Autumn and the feeble flow'rs
Glimmer along our woodlands in wet light;
Within thy shadow thou dost weave the shrouds
Of joy and great adventure, waxing cold,
Which once, or so it seemed, were full of might.
Some power it was, that lives not with us now,
A thought we had, but could not, could not hold.
O sweetly, swiftly pass'd:--air sings and murmurs;
Green leaves are gathering on the dewy bough;
O sadly, swiftly pass'd:--air sighs and mutters;
Red leaves are dropping on the rainy mould.
Then comes the snow, unfeatured, vast, and white.
O what is gone from us, we fancied ours?--
[The end]
William Allingham's poem: Aeolian Harp
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