Explore "Song" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ Unto the portal of the House of Song, / Symbols of wrong and emblems of unrest, / And mottoes of despair and envious jest, / And stony masks of scorn and hate belong.
/ Who enters here shall feel his soul denied / All welcome: lo! the chiselled form of Love, / That stares in marble on the shrine above / The tomb of Beauty, where he dreamed and died!
/ Who enters here shall know no poppyflowers / Of Rest, or harp-tones of serene Content; / Only sad ghosts of music and of scent / Shall mock the mind with their remembered powers.
/ Here must he wait till striving patience carves / His name upon the century-storied floor; / His heart's blood staining one dim pane the more / In Fame's high casement while he sings and starves.