Of all the songs which poets sing <br />The ones which are most sweet <br />Are those which at close intervals <br />A low refrain repeat; <br />Some tender word, some syllable, <br />Over and over, ever and ever, <br />While the song lasts, <br />Altering never, <br />Music if sung, music if said, <br />Subtle like some golden thread <br />A shuttle casts, <br />In and out on a fabric red, <br />Till it glows all through <br />With the golden hue. <br />Oh! of all the songs sung, <br />No songs are so sweet <br />As the songs with refrains, <br />Which repeat and repeat. <br /> <br />Of all the lives lived, <br />No life is so sweet, <br />As the life where one thought, <br />In refrain doth repeat, <br />Over and over, ever and ever, <br />Till the life ends, <br />Altering never, <br />Joy which is felt, but is not said, <br />Subtler than any golden thread <br />Which the shuttle sends <br />In and out in a fabric red, <br />Till it glows all through <br />With a golden hue. <br />Oh! of all the lives lived, <br />Can be no life so sweet, <br />As the life where one thought <br />In refrain doth repeat, <br /> <br />"Now name for me a thought <br />To make life so sweet, <br />A thought of such joy <br />Its refrain to repeat." <br />Oh! foolish to ask me. Ever, ever <br />Who loveth believes, <br />But telleth never. <br />It might be a name, just a name not said, <br />But in every thought; like a golden thread <br />Which the shuttle weaves <br />In and out on a fabric red, <br />Till it glows all through <br />With a golden hue. <br />Oh! of all sweet lives, <br />Who can tell how sweet <br />Is the life which one name <br />In refrain doth repeat?<br /><br />Helen Hunt Jackson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/refrain-2/
