Poems (Probyn)/Villanelle (Where larks were singing high in air)

by May Probyn

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,—

A far-off sweetness, faint and rare, 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.

Half rapture seemed it, half despair— The throb of souls that yearned to climbWhere 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;

"The song," it said, "who learns, must dare— It is the Song of Future Time;While larks make echo high in airIts fulness shakes the golden stair."