Song's Futility
By George Sterling
'Tis but the ghost of beauty that I bring:
Of star and moon, of twilight and the flow'r,
Of Music in her lone, unhappy hour,
I give thee gleam and echo, offering
But shadows oŁ the loveliness I sing.
So must it be: it lies beyond Art's pow'r
To pluck the central rose of Beauty's bow'r;
Her deeper heavens defy his eager wing.
Of what avail my worship and its grief,
As now I strain the bonds of speech, and long
To find a thousand ways to call thee fair,
Except beyond the words thou find belief,
Beyond belief, the heart that breaks with song,
Beyond the song, Love's silences to share?
Carmel.