1. Romance

Romance, who loves to nod and sing 

With drowsy head and folded wing, 

Among the green leaves as they shake 

Far down within some shadowy lake, 

To me a painted paroquet 

Hath been — a most familiar bird — 

Taught me my alphabet to say — 

To lisp my very earliest word 

While in the wild wood I did lie, 

A child — with a most knowing eye. 

 

Of late, eternal Condor years 

So shake the very Heaven on high 

With tumult as they thunder by, 

I have no time for idle cares 

Through gazing on the unquiet sky. 

And when an hour with calmer wings 

Its down upon my spirit flings — 

That little time with lyre and rhyme 

To while away — forbidden things! 

My heart would feel to be a crime 

Unless it trembled with the strings.