Once, I think, a finer fire
Touched my lips, and then I sang
Half the songs of my desire:
With their splendour the world rang.
And their sweetness made me free
Of those starry ways whereby
Planets make their minstrelsy
In echoing, unending sky.
So, before that spell was broken,
Song of the wind, surge of the sea,—
Beautiful passionate things unspoken
Rose like a breaking wave in me:
Rose like a wave with curled crest
That green sunlight splinters through...
But the wave broke within my breast:
And now I am a man like you.