| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
| |
| The Silenced Singer |
| | | William James Linton (1812–97) |
| |
| |
| THE NEST is built, the song hath ceas’d: | |
| The minstrel joineth in the feast, | |
| So singeth not. The poet’s verse, | |
| Crippled by Hymen’s household curse, | |
| Follows no more its hungry quest. | 5 |
| Well if Love’s feathers line the nest. | |
| |
| Yet blame not that beside the fire | |
| Love hangeth up his unstrung lyre! | |
| How sing of hope when Hope hath fled, | |
| Joy whispering lip to lip instead? | 10 |
| Or how repeat the tuneful moan | |
| When the Obdùrate ’s all my own? | |
| |
| Love, like the lark, while soaring sings: | |
| Wouldst have him spread again his wings? | |
| What careth he for higher skies | 15 |
| Who on the heart of harvest lies, | |
| And finds both sun and firmament | |
| Clos’d in the round of his content? | |
| |
|
|
|
