To the old reconquering ray,

But no song answering made it more than day;

No cry of song by night

Shot fire into the cloud-constraining light.

One only, one Æolian island heard

Thrill, but through no bird's throat,

In one strange manlike maiden's godlike note,

The song of all these as a single bird.

Till the sea's portal was as funeral gate

For that sole singer in all time's ageless date

Singled and signed for so triumphal fate,

All nightingales but one in all the world

All her sweet life were silent; only then,

When her life's wing of womanhood was furled,

Their cry, this cry of thine was heard again,

As of me now, of any born of men.

[Pg 324]

Through sleepless clear spring nights filled full of thee,

Rekindled here, thy ruling song has thrilled

The deep dark air and subtle tender sea

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