Summer Song

'Murmuring, 'twixt a murmur and moan, Many a tune in a single tone, For every ear with a secret true- The sea-shell wants to whisper to you.' 'Yes-I hear it-far and faint, Like thin-drawn prayer of drowsy saint; Like the muffled sounds of a summer rain; Like the wash of dreams in a weary brain.' 'By smiling lip and fixed eye, You are hearing a song within the sigh: The murmurer has many a lovely phrase- Tell me, darling, the words it says.' 'I hear a wind on a boatless main Sigh like the last of a vanishing pain; On the dreaming waters dreams the moon- But I hear no words in the doubtful tune.' 'If it tell thee not that I love thee well, 'Tis a senseless, wrinkled, ill-curved shell: If it be not of love, why sigh or sing? 'Tis a common, mechanical, stupid thing!' 'It murmurs, it whispers, with prophet voice Of a peace that comes, of a sealed choice; It says not a word of your love to me, But it tells me I love you eternally.'