English Poetry. Stephen Vincent Benet. A Minor Poet. Стивен Винсент Бене.

Stephen Vincent Benet (Стивен Винсент Бене)

A Minor Poet

I am a shell. From me you shall not hear 
The splendid tramplings of insistent drums, 
The orbed gold of the viol’s voice that comes, 
Heavy with radiance, languorous and clear. 
Yet, if you hold me close against the ear, 
A dim, far whisper rises clamorously, 
The thunderous beat and passion of the sea, 
The slow surge of the tides that drown the mere. 

Others with subtle hands may pluck the strings, 
Making even Love in music audible, 
And earth one glory. I am but a shell 
That moves, not of itself, and moving sings; 
Leaving a fragrance, faint as wine new-shed, 
A tremulous murmur from great days long dead.

Stephen Vincent Benet’s other poems:

1. The General Public
2. Dinner in a Quick Lunch Room
3. Ghosts of a Lunatic Asylum
4. The White Peacock
5. The Mountain Whippoorwill

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

Amy Levy (Эми Леви) A Minor Poet (“Here is the phial; here I turn the key”)

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