by Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)

Hélas!
Language: English 
To drift with every passion till my soul
Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,
Is it for this that I have given away
Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?
Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll
Scrawled over on some boyish holiday
With idle songs for pipe and virelay,
Which do but mar the secret of the whole.
Surely there was a time I might have trod
The sunlit heights, and from life’s dissonance
Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God:
Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod
I did but touch the honey of romance—
And must I lose a soul’s inheritance?

Confirmed with Oscar Wilde, Poems, 12th ed., London: Methuen & Co Ltd, 1913, page 3.


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Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2025-08-27
Line count: 14
Word count: 112