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    A Lonely Flute
    A Lonely Flute
    A Lonely Flute
    Ebook81 pages31 minutes

    A Lonely Flute

    By Odell Shepard

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    About this ebook

    A Lonely Flute by Odell Sheperd is a collection of poems about the otherworldly and ephemeral beauty of nature. Excerpt: "Beyond the pearly portal, Beyond the last dim star, Pale, perfect, and immortal, The eternal visions are, That never any rapture Of sorrow or of mirth Of any song shall capture To dwell with men on earth. Many a strange and tragic Old sorrow still is mute And melodies of magic Still slumber in the flute, Many a mighty vision Has caught my yearning eye And swept with calm derision In robes of splendor by."
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGood Press
    Release dateDec 20, 2019
    ISBN4064066143008
    A Lonely Flute

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      Book preview

      A Lonely Flute - Odell Shepard

      Odell Shepard

      A Lonely Flute

      Published by Good Press, 2019

      [email protected]

      EAN 4064066143008

      Table of Contents

      PROEM

      LAUS MARIÆ

      RECOLLECTION

      NIGHTFALL

      A BALLAD OF LOVE AND DEATH

      BIRDS OF PASSAGE

      WASTE

      THE WATCHER IN THE SKY

      HOUSEMATES

      POMP AND CIRCUMSTANCE

      THE HIDDEN WEAVER

      VANITAS

      SPENSER'S FAËRIE QUEENE

      MORNING ROAD SONG

      EVENING ROAD SONG

      WINDY MORNING

      THE GRAVE OF THOREAU

      EARTH-BORN

      WHENCE COMETH MY HELP

      UNITY

      VISTAS

      A NUN

      LOVE AMONG THE CLOVER

      CERTAIN AMERICAN POETS

      THE SINGER'S QUEST

      DEAD MAGDALEN

      THE ADVENTURER

      THE GOLDFINCH

      ORIOLES

      BY A MOUNTAIN STREAM

      APRIL

      A CHAPEL BY THE SEA

      EPHEMEROS

      WANDERLUST

      THE IDEAL

      THE FIRST CHRISTIAN

      PROEM

      Table of Contents

      Beyond the pearly portal,

      Beyond the last dim star,

      Pale, perfect, and immortal,

      The eternal visions are,

      That never any rapture

      Of sorrow or of mirth

      Of any song shall capture

      To dwell with men on earth.

      Many a strange and tragic

      Old sorrow still is mute

      And melodies of magic

      Still slumber in the flute,

      Many a mighty vision

      Has caught my yearning eye

      And swept with calm derision

      In robes of splendor by.

      The rushing susurration

      Of some eternal wing

      Beats mighty variation

      Through all the song I sing;

      The vague, deep-mouthed commotion

      From its ancestral home

      Booms like the shout of ocean

      Across the crumbling foam;

      And these low lyric whispers

      Make answer wistfully

      As sea-shells … dreaming lispers

      Beside the eternal sea.

      LAUS MARIÆ

      Table of Contents

      There is a name like some deep melody

      Hallowed by sundown, delicate as the plash

      Of lonely waves on solitary lakes

      And rounded as the sudden-bursting bloom

      Of bold, deep-throated notes in a midnight cloud

      When shadowy belfries far away roll out

      Across the dark their avalanche of sound.

      It is a wild voice lost in the wail of the wind;

      The silvery-twinkling plectrum of the rain

      Plays in the poplar tree no other tune

      And pines intone it softly as a prayer

      In leafy litanies.

      The name is raised

      Even to God's ear from ancient arches dim

      With caverned twilight and dull altar smoke

      Where tapers weave athwart the azure haze

      Innumerable pageantries of dusk.

      Low-voiced and soft-eyed women must they live

      Who bear that holy name. And now for one

      Time has no other honor than to be

      The meaning of an unremembered rhyme,

      The breath of a forgotten singer's song.

      (October, 1903)

      RECOLLECTION

      Table of Contents

      I must forget awhile the mellow flutes

      And all the lyric wizardry of

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