Classic Poem

Oh! that days should follow on
Until at last, to all mankind,
Your shape and name should all be gone
Both out of sight and out of mind;
That every thought of you should die,
And be forgotten ev'rywhere,
As that of bloom or butterfly
That shines a little while so fair.
Oh! that I could somehow set you
So that man should not forget you.

Aye, could I for ever leave
Your name on yonder spring or rill,
Or give it, evermore to cleave,
To yonder everlasting hill;
Or make the hollow rocks a tongue
To sound it with the wind in flight,
Or find some fairy, ever young,
To give it on in dreams of night.
Oh! that I could somehow set it
Where the world should not forget it.

Somehow set your shape and hue
On time-proof stone that nought could mar,
To last, as if for ever new,
As in the sky abides the star;
Or could but find, in my sweet thought
Of you, sweet wording for the tongue
Of song, that should be ever caught
From all the old, by all the young —
Song that should for ever set you
Where the world should not forget you.