The Siren waits thee, singing song for song

Ah what avails the sceptered race, Ah what the form divine!

'Tis verse that gives Immortal youth to mortal maids.

There are no fields of amaranth on this side of the grave: there are no voices, O Rhodopè! that are not soon mute, however tuneful: there is no name, with whatever emphasis of passionate love repeated, of which the echo is not faint at …

But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue... Shake one, and it awakens; then apply Its polished lips to your attentive ear, And it remembers its august abodes, And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there.

Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes May weep, but never see, A night of memories and of sighs I consecrate to thee.

When we play the fool, how wide The theatre expands! beside, How long the audience sits before us! How many prompters! what a chorus!