Poem by Henry Timrod

Sonnets. 10. Were I the Poet-Laureate of the Fairies

(Written on a very small sheet of note-paper)

Were I the poet-laureate of the fairies,
Who in a rose-leaf finds too broad a page;
Or could I, like your beautiful canaries,
Sing with free heart and happy, in a cage;
Perhaps I might within this little space
(As in some Eastern tale, by magic power,
A giant is imprisoned in a flower)
Have told you something with a poet's grace.
But I need wider limits, ampler scope,
A world of freedom for a world of passion,
And even then, the glory of my hope
Would not be uttered in its stateliest fashion;
Yet, lady, when fit language shall have told it,
You'll find one little heart enough to hold it!

1. Hymn Sung at an Anniversary of the Asylum of Orphans at Charleston
2. A Cry to Arms
3. Hymn Sung at the Consecration of Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, S.C.
4. Lines to R. L.
5. Lines (I Stooped from Star-Bright Regions)

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