I know a green grass path that leaves the field
And, like a running river, winds along
Into a leafy wood, where is no throng
Of birds at noon-day; and no soft throats yield
Their music to the moon. The place is sealed,
An unclaimed sovereignty of voiceless song,
And all the unravished silences belong
To some sweet singer lost, or unrevealed.
So is my soul become a silent place....
Oh, may I wake from this uneasy night
To find some voice of music manifold.
Let it be shape of sorrow with wan face,
Or love that swoons on sleep, or else delight
That is as wide-eyed as a marigold.
_T. Sturge Moore_
Thomas Sturge Moore was born March 4, 1870. He is well known not only
as an author, but as a critic and wood-engraver. As an artist, he has
achieved no little distinction and has designed the covers for the
poetry of W. B. Yeats and others. As a poet, the greater portion of
his verse is severely classical in tone, academic in expression but,
of its kind, distinctive and intimate. Among his many volumes, the
most outstanding are _The Vinedresser and Other Poems_ (1899), _A
Sicilian Idyll_ (1911) and _The Sea Is Kind_ (1914).