Song

She sat and sang alway

By the green margin of a stream,

Watching the fishes leap and play

Beneath the glad sunbeam.

I sat and wept alway,

Beneath the moon's most shadowy beam,

Watching the blossoms of the May

Weep leaved into the stream.

I wept for memory;

She sang for hope that is so fair:

My tears were swallowed by the sea;

Her songs died on the air.

-Christina Rosetti

A Valediction

As virtuous men pass mildly away,

And whisper to their souls to go,

Whilst some of their sad friends do say,

"Now his breath goes," and some say, "No."

So let us melt, and make no noise,

No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move ;

'Twere profanation of our joys

To tell the laity our love.

Moving of th' earth brings harms and fears ;

Men reckon what it did, and meant ;

But trepidation of the spheres,

Though greater far, is innocent.

Dull sublunary lovers' love

—Whose soul is sense—cannot admit

Of absence, 'cause it doth remove

The thing which elemented it.

But we by a love so much refined,

That ourselves know not what it is,

Inter-assurèd of the mind,

Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.

Our two souls therefore, which are one,

Though I must go, endure not yet

A breach, but an expansion,

Like gold to aery thinness beat.

If they be two, they are two so

As stiff twin compasses are two ;

Thy soul, the fix'd foot, makes no show

To move, but doth, if th' other do.

And though it in the centre sit,

Yet, when the other far doth roam,

It leans, and hearkens after it,

And grows erect, as that comes home.

Such wilt thou be to me, who must,

Like th' other foot, obliquely run ;

Thy firmness makes my circle just,

And makes me end where I begun.

-John Donne, "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning" 1896

The Possibilities Are Endless

How beautiful is youth! How bright it gleams,

With it's illusions, aspirations, dreams!

Book of Beginnings, Story without End,

Each maid a heroine, and each man a friend!

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yeats and Thile

I just came across this evocative poem by Yeats:

Song of Wandering Aengus

I went out to the hazel wood,
Because a fire was in my head,
And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
And hooked a berry to a thread;
And when white moths were on the wing,
And moth-like stars were flickering out,
I dropped the berry in a stream
And caught a little silver trout.

When I had laid it on the floor
I went to blow the fire a-flame,
But something rustled on the floor,
And some one called me by my name:
It had become a glimmering girl
With apple blossom in her hair
Who called me by my name and ran
And faded through the brightening air.

Though I am old with wandering
Through hollow lands and hilly lands,
I will find out where she has gone,
And kiss her lips and take her hands;
And walk among long dappled grass,
And pluck till time and times are done
The silver apples of the moon,
The golden apples of the sun.

- W.B. Yeats

As soon as I read it I realized it must have been the inspiration behind this, one of my favourites of Chris Thile's songs:

How to Grow a Woman from the Ground - Chris Thile and the How to Grow a Band*

And here be the lyrics:

I caught a string full of fish
down at the dam
and I'll drag them to the field
they should be dead by then
wipe the sweat from my neck
and tally ho the plow
I'm gonna grow a woman from the ground

the night was a chalkboard with a fingernail moon
if the fish ain't dead yet
they will be pretty soon
kind of like the feeling in an old folks home
even though you love them you cant wait for them to go

I'll call her Angelina she's a teacher I once had

a halo of honey wrapped around her head

and she always used to give me some when I was a kid

I told her that I loved her and then I went and hid

I'll take you into town and I will show you off
theres room on your dress for a corsage
and I'll open every door for you

I opened up my almanac and in my head I read

cut you wrist on the fins of the fish and drain all you can

so I rolled up my sleeves and then began to draw

lines just as deep as days are long

I sewed up my wrists and sowed the ground with my blood

stained up my clothes pretty good

turned that dirt to mud

could not help but close my eyes and lay my body down

'cause I heard it takes forever to grow a woman from the ground

I bleed for you and now I'm skinny as a rail
and I'll be so obliged to keep you nice and warm and safe
and won't you be so proud of me 

- Tom Anderson Brosseau

I was so thrilled to discover this. Oh I love little surprises such as these!

*Later known as the much beloved Punch Brothers :)