'APOLLO laughs,' the proverb tells, <br />Far echo of old oracles, <br />A Delphic waif, —'Once in the year, <br />Apollo laughs.' O laughter clear <br />As sunshine, blithe as golden bells! <br />What mortal folly parallels <br />Olympian jest and so impels <br />To mirth till Heaven's bright charioteer, <br />Apollo, laughs? <br />'Tis when the annual critic knells <br />The death of poetry, while swells <br />Some faint, fresh wood-note, pioneer <br />Of music earth shall thrill to hear. <br />Then at Apollo's infidels <br />Apollo laughs.<br /><br />Katharine Lee Bates<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/apollo-laughs/
