Explore "The Poet" by Theodosia Pickrering Garrison on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
He made him a love o' dreams -- / He raised for his heart's delight -- / (As the heart of June a crescent moon) / A frail, fair spirit of light.
He gave her the gift of joy -- / The gift of the dancing feet -- / He made her a thing of very Spring -- / Virginal -- wild and sweet.
But when he would draw her near / To his eager heart's content, / As a sunbeam slips from the finger-tips / She slipped from his hold and went.
Virginal -- wild -- and sweet -- / So she eludes him still -- / The love that he made of dawn and shade / Of dominant want and will.
For ever the dream of man / Is more than the dreamer is; / Though he form it whole of his inmost soul, / Yet never 'tis wholly his.
Only is given to him / The right to follow and yearn / The loveliness he may not possess, / The vision that may not turn.
Never to hold or to bind -- / Only to know how fleet / The dream that is and yet is not his, -- / Virginal -- wild -- and sweet.