C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Dedication to ‘Prose Fancies’
By Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947)
From ‘Prose Fancies’ (Second Series)
P
Nothing but words!
The gifts of kings are gold,
Silver and flocks and herds,
Garments of strange, soft silk,
Feathers of wonderful birds,
Jewels and precious stones,
And horses white as the milk,—
These are the gifts of kings;
But the gifts that the poet brings
Are nothing but words.
Take them,—a gift of flies!
Words that should have been birds,
Words that should have been flowers,
Words that should have been stars
In the eternal skies.
Forty thousand words!
Forty thousand tears—
All out of two sad eyes.