But ah, the birds, the birds! Who shall build bowers

To keep these thine? O friend, the birds have flown.

For as these come and go, and quit our pine

To follow the sweet season, or, new-comers,

Sing one song only from our alder-trees,

My heart has thoughts, which, though thine eyes hold mine,

Flit to the silent world and other summers,

With wings that dip beyond the silver seas.

Alice Meynell’s Poems. (Charles Scribner’s Sons.)

A Remarkable Nietzschean Drama