Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Sentiment: IV. Thought: Poetry: BooksThe Ancient and Modern Muses
Francis Turner Palgrave (18241897)T
Was promised well by bards of old;
The lucid outline of their lay
Its sweet precision keeps for aye,
Fixed in the ductile language-gold.
And less refined material mould,—
This close conglomerate English speech,
Bequest of many tribes, that each
Brought here and wrought at from of old,
Barbarian ornament uncouth,—
Our hope is less to last through Art
Than deeper searching of the heart,
Than broader range of uttered truth.
Athenian Sophocles could show,
And rest content; but Shakespeare’s stage
Must hold the glass to every age,—
A thousand forms and passions glow
With larger scope our art we ply;
And if the crown be harder won,
Diviner rays around it run,
With strains of fuller harmony.