Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

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I.

A VOICE by the cedar-tree,

In the meadow under the Hall!

She is singing an air that is known to me,

A passionate ballad gallant and gay,

A martial song like a trumpet’s call!

Singing alone in the morning of life,

In the happy morning of life and of May,

Singing of men that in battle array,

Ready in heart and ready in hand,

March with banner and bugle and fife

To the death, for their native land.

II.

Maud with her exquisite face,

And wild voice pealing up to the sunny sky,

And feet like sunny gems on an English green;

Maud in the light of her youth and her grace,

Singing of Death, and of Honor that cannot die,

Till I well could weep for a time so sordid and mean,

And myself so languid and base.

III.

Silence, beautiful voice,

Be still, for you only trouble the mind

With a joy in which I cannot rejoice,

A glory I shall not find.

Still! I will hear you no more;

For your sweetness hardly leaves me a choice

But to move to the meadow, and fall before

Her feet on the meadow grass, and adore,

Not her, who is neither courtly nor kind,

Not her, not her, but a voice.