Poem by William Watson

A Song of Three Singers

I

 Wave and wind and willow-tree
Speak a speech that no man knoweth;
Tree that sigheth, wind that bloweth,
 Wave that floweth to the sea:
 Wave and wind and willow-tree.

 Peerless perfect poets ye,
Singing songs all songs excelling,
Fine as crystal music dwelling
 In a welling fountain free:
 Peerless perfect poets three!

II

 Wave and wind and willow-tree
Know not aught of poets' rhyming,
Yet they make a silver-chiming
 Sunward-climbing minstrelsy,
 Soother than all songs that be.

 Blows the wind it knows not why,
Flows the wave it knows not whither,
And the willow swayeth hither
 Swayeth thither witlessly,
 Nothing knowing save to sigh.

1. On Landor's “Hellenics”
2. In Laleham Churchyard
3. Mensis Lacrimarum
4. Scentless Flow'rs I Bring Thee
5. The Blind Summit

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