Was Time not harsh to you, or was he kind, <br />O pale Erinna of the perfect lyre, <br />That he has left no word of singing fire <br />Whereby you waked the dreaming Lesbian wind, <br />And kindled night along the lyric shore? <br />O girl whose lips Erato stooped to kiss, <br />Do you go sorrowing because of this <br />In fields where poets sing forevermore? <br />Or are you glad and is it best to be <br />A silent music men have never heard, <br />A dream in all our souls that we may say: <br />"Her voice had all the rapture of the sea, <br />And all the clear cool quiver of a bird <br />Deep in a forest at the break of day"?<br /><br />Sara Teasdale<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-erinna/
