Francis Thompson (Фрэнсис Томпсон)

A Question

O bird with heart of wassail,
That toss the Bacchic branch,
And slip your shaken music,
An elfin avalanche;

Come tell me, O tell me,
My poet of the blue!
What's YOUR thought of me, Sweet?--
Here's MY thought of you.

A small thing, a wee thing,
A brown fleck of nought;
With winging and singing
That who could have thought?

A small thing, a wee thing,
A brown amaze withal,
That fly a pitch more azure
Because you're so small.

Bird, I'm a small thing--
My angel descries;
With winging and singing
That who could surmise?

Ah, small things, ah, wee things,
Are the poets all,
Whose tour's the more azure
Because they're so small.

The angels hang watching
The tiny men-things:-
'The dear speck of flesh, see,
With such daring wings!

'Come, tell us, O tell us,
Thou strange mortality!
What's THY thought of us, Dear?--
Here's OUR thought of thee.'

'Alack! you tall angels,
I can't think so high!
I can't think what it feels like
Not to be I.'

Come tell me, O tell me,
My poet of the blue!
What's YOUR thought of me, Sweet?--
Here's MY thought of you. 

Francis Thompson’s other poems:

  1. Epilogue to the Poet’s Sitter
  2. The Child-Woman
  3. Poet and Anchorite
  4. The Mirage
  5. To a Child Heard Repeating Her Mother’s Verses

Poems of other poets with the same name (Стихотворения других поэтов с таким же названием):

  • Alfred Austin (Альфред Остин) A Question (“Love, wilt thou love me still when wintry streak”)
  • Isaac Rosenberg (Айзек Розенберг) A Question (“What if you shut your eyes and look”)
  • Dinah Craik (Дина Крейк) A Question (“SOUL, spirit, genius–which thou art–that whence”)
  • Ellis Butler (Эллис Батлер) A Question (“Whene’er I feed the barnyard folk”)
  • Robert Frost (Роберт Фрост) A Question (“A voice said, Look me in the stars”)




    To the dedicated English version of this website