Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

All Sung

Richard Le Gallienne (1866–1947)

WHAT shall I sing when all is sung

And every tale is told,

And in the world is nothing young

That was not long since old?

Why should I fret unwilling ears

With old things sung anew

While voices from the old dead year

Still go on singing too?

A dead man singing of his maid

Makes all my rhymes in vain,

Yet his poor lips must fade and fade,

And mine shall sing again.

Why should I strive thro’ weary moons

To make my music true?

Only the dead men know the tunes

The live world dances to.