Poems (Probyn)/Villanelle (Where larks were singing high in air)
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For works with similar titles, see Villanelle.
VILLANELLE.
Where larks were singing high in air
I heard a sound like bells that chime,
Or tread of feet on golden stair,—
I heard a sound like bells that chime,
Or tread of feet on golden stair,—
A far-off sweetness, faint and rare,
That died in distances sublime,
Where larks were singing high in air.
That died in distances sublime,
Where larks were singing high in air.
And listening ever, I was 'ware
Of half-articulated rhyme,
Or tread of feet on golden stair.
Of half-articulated rhyme,
Or tread of feet on golden stair.
Half rapture seemed it, half despair—
The throb of souls that yearned to climb
Where larks were singing high in air.
The throb of souls that yearned to climb
Where larks were singing high in air.
A glimpse I caught of aureoled hair,
A voice from out a starrier clime,
Or tread of feet on golden stair;
A voice from out a starrier clime,
Or tread of feet on golden stair;
"The song," it said, "who learns, must dare—
It is the Song of Future Time;
While larks make echo high in air
Its fulness shakes the golden stair."
It is the Song of Future Time;
While larks make echo high in air
Its fulness shakes the golden stair."