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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  555. Glycine’s Song

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 1772–1834

555. Glycine’s Song

A SUNNY shaft did I behold, 
  From sky to earth it slanted: 
And poised therein a bird so bold— 
  Sweet bird, thou wert enchanted! 
 
He sank, he rose, he twinkled, he troll’d         5
  Within that shaft of sunny mist; 
His eyes of fire, his beak of gold, 
  All else of amethyst! 
 
And thus he sang: ‘Adieu! adieu! 
Love’s dreams prove seldom true.  10
The blossoms, they make no delay: 
The sparking dew-drops will not stay. 
    Sweet month of May, 
      We must away; 
      Far, far away!  15
        To-day! to-day!’