Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VI. Fancy. 1904. | | | | Poems of Sentiment: IV. Thought: Poetry: Books | | Indirection | | Richard Realf (1832–1878) |
| | | FAIR are the flowers and the children, but their subtle suggestion is fairer; | |
| Rare is the roseburst of dawn, but the secret that clasps it is rarer; | |
| Sweet the exultance of song, but the strain that precedes it is sweeter; | |
| And never was poem yet writ, but the meaning outmastered the metre. | |
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| Never a daisy that grows, but a mystery guideth the growing; | 5 |
| Never a river that flows, but a majesty sceptres the flowing; | |
| Never a Shakespeare that soared, but a stronger than he did enfold him, | |
| Nor ever a prophet foretells, but a mightier seer hath foretold him. | |
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| Back of the canvas that throbs the painter is hinted and hidden; | |
| Into the statue that breathes the soul of the sculptor is bidden; | 10 |
| Under the joy that is felt lie the infinite issues of feeling; | |
| Crowning the glory revealed is the glory that crowns the revealing. | |
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| Great are the symbols of being, but that which is symboled is greater; | |
| Vast the create and beheld, but vaster the inward creator; | |
| Back of the sound broods the silence, back of the gift stands the giving; | 15 |
| Back of the hand that receives thrill the sensitive nerves of receiving. | |
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| Space is as nothing to spirit, the deed is outdone by the doing; | |
| The heart of the wooer is warm, but warmer the heart of the wooing; | |
| And up from the pits where these shiver, and up from the heights where those shine, | |
| Twin voices and shadows swim starward, and the essence of life is divine. | 20 | | | |
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