VEX not the Muse with idle prayers,-- <br />She will not hear thy call; <br />She steals upon thee unawares, <br />Or seeks thee not at all. <br /> <br />Soft as the moonbeams when they sought <br />Endymion's fragrant bower, <br />She parts the whispering leaves of thought <br />To show her full-blown flower. <br /> <br />For thee her wooing hour has passed, <br />The singing birds have flown, <br />And winter comes with icy blast <br />To chill thy buds unblown. <br /> <br />Yet, though the woods no longer thrill <br />As once their arches rung, <br />Sweet echoes hover round thee still <br />Of songs thy summer sung. <br /> <br />Live in thy past; await no more <br />The rush of heaven-sent wings; <br />Earth still has music left in store <br />While Memory sighs and sings.<br /><br />Oliver Wendell Holmes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-vita-minerva/
