Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Sir Edmund William Gosse 1849–1928

The Voice of D. G. R.

Gosse-Si

FROM this carved chair wherein I sit tonight,

The dead man read in accents deep and strong,

Through lips that were like Chaucer’s, his great song

About the Beryl and its virgin light;

And still that music lives in death’s despite,

And though my pilgrimage on earth be long,

Time cannot do my memory so much wrong

As e’er to make that gracious voice take flight.

I sit here with closed eyes; the sound comes back,

With youth, and hope, and glory on its track,

A solemn organ-music of the mind;

So, when the oracular moon brings back the tide,

After long drought, the sandy channel wide

Murmurs with waves, and sings beneath the wind.