For a Birthday
Cornelia Frances Bates, AET. 79
Long ago sweet song songs were sung
Of fair ladies ever young;
Wearier wanderings over sea,
Exile in sad lands and strange,
Yet their beauty might not change.
Not a single word is told
Of a Helen who grows old;
Not her thousand sorrows dare
Dull the light of Deirdre’s hair;
Iseult, lovelier than report,
Maiden. In her father’s court,
Grown world-radiant shall be seen
Through all time, Iseult the Queen.
Deirdre, Helen, Iseult are
Fadeless, shining star by star;
If their poets I might bring,
Skilled to touch the harp and sing,
Lady, I would bid them praise
Your brave crown of golden days;
Blithe and sweet their song should be, —
Song of her who graciously
With each soft year younger grows,
As the earth with every rose.
December 7, 1905
From The Poems of Sophie Jewett (Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1910) by Sophie Jewett. Copyright © Thomas Y. Crowell & Co. This poem is in the public domain.