| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Song: ‘Love took my life and thrill’d it’ | | By Sir Lewis Morris (1833–1907) |
| | | LOVE took my life and thrill’d it | |
| Through all its strings, | |
| Play’d round my mind and fill’d it | |
| With sound of wings: | |
| But to my heart he never came | 5 |
| To touch it with his golden flame. | |
| |
| Therefore it is that singing | |
| I do rejoice, | |
| Nor heed the slow years bringing | |
| A harsher voice: | 10 |
| Because the songs which he has sung | |
| Still leave the untouch’d singer young. | |
| |
| But whom in fuller fashion | |
| The Master sways, | |
| For him, swift wing’d with passion, | 15 |
| Fleet the brief days: | |
| Betimes the enforcèd accents come, | |
| And leave him ever after dumb. | | | | |
|
|
