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The Poems and Prose of Ernest Dowson

by Ernest Dowson

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Chanson Sans Paroles

In the deep violet air,
    Not a leaf is stirred;
    There is no sound heard,
  But afar, the rare
    Trilled voice of a bird.

Is the wood’s dim heart,
    And the fragrant pine,
    Incense, and a shrine
  Of her coming? Apart,
    I wait for a sign.

What the sudden hush said,
    She will hear, and forsake,
    Swift, for my sake,
  Her green, grassy bed:
    She will hear and awake!

She will hearken and glide,
    From her place of deep rest,
    Dove-eyed, with the breast
  Of a dove, to my side:
    The pines bow their crest.

I wait for a sign:
    The leaves to be waved,
    The tall tree-tops laved
  In a flood of sunshine,
    This world to be saved!

In the deep violet air,
    Not a leaf is stirred;
    There is no sound heard,
  But afar, the rare
    Trilled voice of a bird.

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