Versos English Elizabeth Stuart Phelps INCOMPLETION.

English poem

INCOMPLETION.

by (1844–1911)

Listen in the reader

Perhaps the bud lost from the loaded tree The sweetest blossom of the May would be;

Or wildest song that summer could have heard Is dumb within the throat of the dead bird.

The perfect statue that all men have sought May in some crippled hand be hid, unwrought.

Which of our dearest dead betook his flight Into the rose-red star that fell last night?

The words forever by thy lips unsaid Had been the crown of life upon thy head.

The splendid sun of all my days might be The love that I shall never give to thee.