Feda with Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

I knew a poet,—one with eyes of laughter,
A face like a sun-smile, eager as a boy,
Singing as the birds sing, trusting the hereafter—
I knew a poet, and his name was Joy!

I knew a poet, who had eyes for beauty
Piercing the cloud-mists, reaching over death,
Sounding the world's song like a hymn of duty,—
I knew a poet, and his name was Faith!

One there was also gentle as a woman,
Walking the sunless alleys of the city,
One all-compassionate, eloquently human,—
I knew a poet, and his name was Pity!

But these with their loveless tissue of fair weaving,
These with the joyless musical refrain,
These letting life go blind, and unbelieving,
These looking earthward only and in vain;

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These that have lain in the poppy-flowers waving,
Grown where the fields turn wilderness and bare,
These with the look-back and the lotus craving,
These with the thin self-echo of despair;

These ever straining after days that were not,
These with their reckless abandonment of youth,
These that restrain not, wonder not, revere not,—
These are no poets, or I know no Truth.