Explore "Fireflies" by Virna Sheard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
(From an old Italian Legend)
True lovers' words are deathless things; / Eros, the little god, and wise, / Catches them all, -- gives to them wings, / And turns them into fireflies!
Words that are sweet as a caress, / And wild, bright words no will can tame; / Soft words of haunting tenderness, -- / Words that are like a blue-white flame.
The magic word, the jewelled word, / The word that hides a thousand fears, -- / These all the perfumed winds have heard, / Through all the immemorial years!
Not one is lost; -- by old sea walls, / And over beds of mignonette, / And through lost lanes, -- when darkness falls, / In loveliness they sparkle yet.
Then down the velvet sea of night, / Like little lighted ships asail, / They pass away, and out of sight, -- / Companioned by the nightingale.