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Home  »  The Little Book of Modern Verse  »  The Secret

Jessie B. Rittenhouse, ed. (1869–1948). The Little Book of Modern Verse. 1917.

George Edward Woodberry

The Secret

NIGHTINGALES warble about it,

All night under blossom and star;

The wild swan is dying without it,

And the eagle crieth afar;

The sun he doth mount but to find it,

Searching the green earth o’er;

But more doth a man’s heart mind it,

Oh, more, more, more!

Over the gray leagues of ocean

The infinite yearneth alone;

The forests with wandering emotion

The thing they know not intone;

Creation arose but to see it,

A million lamps in the blue;

But a lover he shall be it

If one sweet maid is true.