Faint Music -- Walter de la Mare

(Poem #1024) Faint Music The meteor's arc of quiet; a voiceless rain; The mist's mute communing with a stagnant moat; The sigh of a flower that has neglected lain; That bell's unuttered note; A hidden self rebels, its slumber broken; Love secret as crystal forms within the womb; The heart may as faithfully beat, the vow unspoken; All sounds to silence come. -- Walter de la Mare

All good poetry is magical in some way, but de la Mare's poems have a
_specific_ kind of magic, instantly recognizable, yet near impossible to
paraphrase or even parody. Certainly the precise blend of delicate phrasing
and carefully-chosen subject material that characterizes his art may strike
one as repetitive [1], but as long as it works (and work it does, most of
the time), who am I to cavil?

thomas.

[1] I'm not sure I could read an entire volume of de la Mare's poetry
uninterrupted, but I do enjoy dipping into his work every now and then.

[Minstrels Links]

Walter de la Mare:
Poem #2, The Listeners
Poem #272, Napoleon
Poem #483, Brueghel's Winter
Poem #725, Silver
Poem #1024, Faint Music