I admire Elizabeth Stoddard

I wonder how she met her husband, a poet.  I wonder at these couples who are poets - did they live poetically romantic lives, or were they stormy together, or like us, did they compromise their way to comfort?

The Poet's Secret

by Elizabeth Stoddard

The poet's secret I must know,
If that will calm my restless mind.
I hail the seasons as they go,
I woo the sunshine, brave the wind.

I scan the lily and the rose,
I nod to every nodding tree,
I follow every stream that flows,
And wait beside the steadfast sea.

I question melancholy eyes,
I touch the lips of women fair:
Their lips and eyes may make me wise,
But what I seek for is not there.

In vain I watch the day and night,
In vain the world through space may roll:
I never see the mystic light
Which fills the poet's happy soul.

Through life I hear the rhythmic flow
Whose meaning into song must turn;
Revealing all he longs to know,
The secret each alone must learn.

More poems.