Pebbles and Shells (Hawkes collection)/The Poet's Love
THE POET'S LOVE
The poet's love should be a maid so fair
That all would pause in pleasure and surprise,
Whene'er she passed, to feast their hungry eyes
Upon a sight so beautiful and rare.
The poet's love should have a mind and dare
To criticise her minstrel's faulty song,
To tell him where the feeble lines went wrong,
And then to praise the little beauty there.
The poet's love should be a maid of prayer
And draw her knowledge of the lyric art
Out of the longings of her woman's heart,
With eyes to see and heart to truly care
For peerless truth, then while the poet sings
She lifts him up to higher nobler things.
That all would pause in pleasure and surprise,
Whene'er she passed, to feast their hungry eyes
Upon a sight so beautiful and rare.
The poet's love should have a mind and dare
To criticise her minstrel's faulty song,
To tell him where the feeble lines went wrong,
And then to praise the little beauty there.
The poet's love should be a maid of prayer
And draw her knowledge of the lyric art
Out of the longings of her woman's heart,
With eyes to see and heart to truly care
For peerless truth, then while the poet sings
She lifts him up to higher nobler things.