For ever, since my childish looks <br />Could rest on Nature's pictured books; <br />For ever, since my childish tongue <br />Could name the themes our bards have sung; <br />So long, the sweetness of their singing <br />Hath been to me a rapture bringing! <br />Yet ask me not the reason why <br />I have delight in minstrelsy. <br /> <br />I know that much whereof I sing, <br />Is shapen but for vanishing; <br />I know that summer's flower and leaf <br />And shine and shade are very brief, <br />And that the heart they brighten, may, <br />Before them all, be sheathed in clay! -- <br />I do not know the reason why <br />I have delight in minstrelsy. <br /> <br />A few there are, whose smile and praise <br />My minstrel hope, would kindly raise: <br />But, of those few -- Death may impress <br />The lips of some with silentness; <br />While some may friendship's faith resign, <br />And heed no more a song of mine. -- <br />Ask not, ask not the reason why <br />I have delight in minstrelsy. <br /> <br />The sweetest song that minstrels sing, <br />Will charm not Joy to tarrying; <br />The greenest bay that earth can grow, <br />Will shelter not in burning woe; <br />A thousand voices will not cheer, <br />When one is mute that aye is dear! -- <br />Is there, alas! no reason why <br />I have delight in minstrelsy. <br /> <br />I do not know! The turf is green <br />Beneath the rain's fast-dropping sheen, <br />Yet asks not why that deeper hue <br />Doth all its tender leaves renew; -- <br />And I, like-minded, am content, <br />While music to my soul is sent, <br />To question not the reason why <br />I have delight in minstrelsy. <br /> <br />Years pass -- my life with them shall pass: <br />And soon, the cricket in the grass <br />And summer bird, shall louder sing <br />Than she who owns a minstrel's string. <br />Oh then may some, the dear and few, <br />Recall her love, whose truth they knew; <br />When all forget to question why <br />She had delight in minstrelsy!<br /><br />Elizabeth Barrett Browning<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/minstrelsy/
