Legends and Lyrics - First Series
GOLDEN WORDS

Adelaide A

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Some words are played on golden strings,

Which I so highly rate,

I cannot bear for meaner things

Their sound to desecrate.

For every day they are not meet,

Or for a careless tone;

They are for rarest, and most sweet,

And noblest use alone.

One word is POET: which is flung

So carelessly away,

When such as you and I have sung,

We hear it, day by day.

Men pay it for a tender phrase

Set in a cadenced rhyme:

I keep it as a crown of praise

To crown the kings of time.

And LOVE: the slightest feelings, stirred

By trivial fancy, seek

Expression in that golden word

They tarnish while they speak.

Nay, let the heart's slow, rare decree,

That word in reverence keep

Silence herself should only be

More sacred and more deep.

FOR EVER: men have grown at length

To use that word, to raise

Some feeble protest into strength,

Or turn some tender phrase.

It should be said in awe and fear

By true heart and strong will,

And burn more brightly year by year,

A starry witness still.

HONOUR: all trifling hearts are fond

Of that divine appeal,

And men, upon the slightest bond,

Set it as slighter seal.

That word should meet a noble foe

Upon a noble field,

And echo--like a deadly blow

Turned by a silver shield.

Trust me, the worth of words is such

They guard all noble things,

And that this rash irreverent touch

Has jarred some golden strings.

For what the lips have lightly said

The heart will lightly hold,

And things on which we daily tread

Are lightly bought and sold.

The sun of every day will bleach

The costliest purple hue.

And so our common daily speech

Discolours what was true.

But as you keep some thoughts apart

In sacred honoured care,

If in the silence of your heart,

Their utterance too be rare;

Then, while a thousand words repeat

Unmeaning clamours all,

Melodious golden echoes sweet

Shall answer when you call.

This book is provided by FunNovel Novel Book | Fan Fiction Novel [Beautiful Free Novel Book]

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