The Poetry Corner

Interpreted

By Madison Julius Cawein

What magic shall solve us the secret Of beauty that's born for an hour? That gleams like the flight of an egret, Or burns like the scent of a flower, With death for a dower? What leaps in the bosk but a satyr? What pipes on the wind but a faun? Or laughs in the waters that scatter, But limbs of a nymph who is gone, When we walk in the dawn? What sings on the hills but a fairy? Or sighs in the fields but a sprite? What breathes through the leaves but the airy Soft spirits of shadow and light, When we walk in the night? Behold how the world-heart is eager To draw us and hold us and claim! Through truths of the dreams that beleaguer Her soul she makes ours the same, And death but a name.