Listen, dear Golden Bird ...
When I was a tiny fellow, when I was nine years old,
Some wonder slipped from my spirit, and was lost, was lost ...
But far-off on the Earth, O Golden Bird, you were born ...

Long dark years were mine ... dust of struggle and toil ...
And I ran through the cities seeking, and looking at the beautiful faces ...
Was this the wonder? was this? or was it a pine, a sea-wave,
Or was it a song, a star?

My music jangled in my throat, aching for the wonder,
The wonder of fairy-wing'd love, and the long blue-drifting golden-haired sea-girl,
Maiden eternal who brings a star up from the dark,
Wild morning-glory and evening-glow, O wonder, wonder, O wonder!

And at last, as I sang my " Nevermore,"
Golden Bird, you came from the dark ...
You came, and trouble was on me,
You came and I knew you not ...
But Golden Bird, my Eve, knew the Adam from whence she sprang,
She knew it in a song of love ...
Beating her futile wings against the bars of my jailed spirit,
She vanished in flight afar, and fell, and sickened, and almost died ...

But out of death, she came,
Yea, out of death, she came,
Out of her death and mine, and my heavens opened, and in a long silence and slowness
I looked falteringly up, I looked and I slowly saw,
I saw and I knew ... I knew and I found ...
Found Golden Bird, found my soul,
O wonder, wonder, O wonder ...