Poem-A-Day: Theophile Gautier, On a Thought of Wordsworth's

	September 1, 2012 Today's poem appears in Selected Lyrics, published by Yale University Press. More from this author Related Poems Lines Written in Early Spring by William Wordsworth On Reading a Child's Guide to Modern Physics by W. H. Auden On the Medusa of Leonardo Da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery by Percy Bysshe Shelley You can unsubscribe from our Poem-A-Day emails at at anytime—either completely, or until next April. Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane Suite 901 New York, NY 10038 212-274-0343 academy@poets.org		On a Thought of Wordsworth's by Théophile Gautier translated by Agnes Lee I've read no line of Wordsworth whom the steven    Of Byron hath assailed with bitterest gall,    Save this I came upon, a fragment small In a romance pseudonymously given, From Apuleius filched, "Louisa,"—leaven    Of thought impure and pictures passional.    How well the flash of beauty I recall, The "Spires whose silent finger points to heaven!" A white dove's feather down the darkness strayed,    A lovely flower abloom in some foul nook.       And now when riming halts and fancy tires, And Prospero is of Ariel unobeyed,    I over all the margin of my book       Trace group on group of heavenward-pointing spires. Share Digg StumbleUpon Facebook E-mail to Friend