| Augustin S. Macdonald, comp. A Collection of Verse by California Poets. 1914. | | | | The Shrine of Song | | By Louis Alexander Robertson |
| | | IN mute amazement oft I pause before | |
| The portals of Song’s shrine and list to those | |
| Whose music from its classic cloisters flows | |
| Adown the tide of Time for evermore. | |
| I see the place that no man may explore, | 5 |
| Save him whose Art its life to Genius owes, | |
| On whose rapt lips the sacred cinder glows | |
| That teaches Song’s sweet shibboleth and lore. | |
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| Ah, it were heaven to enter in and kneel | |
| In some dim aisle, unnoticed and apart, | 10 |
| With thirsting soul to drink the sounds that shame | |
| My songs to silence; then to rise and feel | |
| That my untutored lips had learnt the art | |
| That seats the singer in the House of Fame! | | | | |
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