Quote#Art
If she but smile, the crystal calm shall break
Quote byBayard Taylor · 1825–1878
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: "The Return of the Goddess" (1850), later published as the Preface to The Poet's Journal (1863); also in The Poetical Works of Bayard Taylor (1907), p. 103..
English (original)
If she but smile, the crystal calm shall break In music, sweeter than it ever gave, As when a breeze breathes o'er some sleeping lake, And laughs in every wave.
— Bayard Taylor
More from Bayard Taylor
Peace the offspring is of Power.
Sleep, soldiers! still in honored rest Your truth and valor wearing: The bravest are the tenderest,— The loving are the daring.
Knowledge alone is the being of Nature, Giving a soul to her manifold features, Lighting through paths of the primitive darkness, The footsteps of Truth and the vision of Song.
From the Desert I come to thee On a stallion shod with fire; And the winds are left behind In the speed of my desire. Under thy window I stand, And the midnight hears my cry:
They sang of love, and not of fame; Forgot was Britain's glory; Each heart recalled a different name, But all sang Annie Lawrie.
The hollows are heavy and dank With the steam of the Goldenrods.