Classic Poem

Since thy singing first I heard
Long ago, thou teasing bird,
Still I seek and panting follow
Over hill and plain and hollow,
Stayed by thicket, slowed by stream,
Gladdened by a rainbow gleam
Flashed amid thy music's hush;
Then a stronger, wilder gush
Of thy witch-note checks my foot,
Charms me even from pursuit;
And I pause, how long I know not,
Till thy trancing measures flow not,
Then I start with new insistence,
Till again, in mazy distance,
Of thy plumes a glint I catch,
Of thy song a lilting snatch;
But my hand I never place
On thy flitting hue and grace,
Never hear thy song complete,
Still pursuing, ne'er to meet,
Hurried by thy flattering lure
On to something sweeter, newer.

Fond evasion, dear elusion,
Bliss and bale in madding fusion,
Thou, they say, of poets art
Sole inheritance and part
In the lavish goods of earth;
But, without thee, what were worth?
So thy flight I follow blest;
Let the world keep all the rest!