Explore "My Lover Smiled" by Bliss Carman on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
My lover smiled, "O friend, ask not / The journey's end, nor whence we are. / That whistling boy who minds his goats / So idly in the grey ravine,
"The brown-backed rower drenched with spray, / The lemon-seller in the street, / And the young girl who keeps her first / Wild love-tryst at the rising moon, --
"Lo, these are wiser than the wise. / And not for all our questioning / Shall we discover more than joy, / Nor find a better thing than love!
"Let pass the banners and the spears, / The hate, the battle, and the greed; / For greater than all gifts is peace, / And strength is in the tranquil mind. "