Bride's Song by Sheila Kaye-Smith
The poem "Bride's Song" traces a speaker's confession that love and vision have not always been as they now are. The speaker once loved differently, when another love, one that moved among the constellations on a fiery, divine path, belonged to them. But a bird cannot fly forever: the sky is too rare and too lofty, so the tired bird folds its wings, settles in the tree-top, sings, and tries to forget the skies it once knew. The speaker likewise once dreamed differently, walking long ago in Paradise, where an angel's beckoning eyes gleamed through the coolness of the garden. But the sun cannot always be bright: it faints before the sword of night, and so people hurry back into the house and try, with a candle, to forget the sun once day is done. The poem closes with the speaker going into the sunset and hearing, among the trees, the faint note of a bird.
By Sheila Kaye-Smith · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Elegiac Poetry · 239 words
First lines
It was not always thus I loved, / Once, long ago, another love was mine, / A love that through the constellations moved / On fiery way divine -- / It was not always thus I loved. / But can a bird for ever fly? / Too rare, too lofty, is the sky, / The poor bird folds his tired wings, / And in the tree-top sings, / And tries / To forget the skies.
What this Textopian page supports
Bride's Song is listed on Textopian as a poem by Sheila Kaye-Smith, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Sheila Kaye-Smith
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Romantic Poetry, Elegiac Poetry, Nostalgic Poetry, Spiritual Poetry
- Length: 239 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Easy (6th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Bride's Song by Sheila Kaye-Smith
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is structured as subjective, emotional verse with stanzaic form and first-person reflection on personal feelings of love and loss.
- Romantic Poetry — The central preoccupation is romantic love—its transcendent past and its diminished present—with themes of desire, longing, and emotional attachment dominating.
- Elegiac Poetry — The poem exhibits elegiac tone and structure, mourning the loss of transcendent love through contemplative reflection and acceptance of diminishment.
- Nostalgic Poetry — The repeated refrain 'It was not always thus' emphasizes yearning for the past and contrasts former transcendence with present compromise and resignation.
Tags
lyric poetry · lost love · spiritual decline · paradise lost · transcendence · celestial imagery · nostalgic · melancholic · memory · bird symbolism · light and darkness · divine and earthly