James Elroy Flecker

"I care not if you bridge the seas, Or ride secure the cruel sky, Or build consummate palaces Of metal or of masonry. But have you wine and music still, And statues and a bright-eyed love, And foolish thoughts of good and ill, And prayers to them who sit above?"

"O friend unseen, unborn, unknown, Student of our sweet English tongue, Read out my words at night, alone: I was a poet, I was young."

"West of these out to seas colder than the Hebrides I must go Where the fleet of stars is anchored and the young Star captains glow."

"We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage: And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, We Poets of the proud old lineage Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why."

"When even lovers find their peace at last, And Earth is but a star, that once had shone."

"When the great markets by the sea shut fast All that calm Sunday that goes on and on: When even lovers find their peace at last, And Earth is but a star, that once had shone."

"I have seen old ships sail like swans asleep."

"A ship, an isle, a sickle moon — With few but with how splendid stars."

"The poet's business is not to save the soul of man but to make it worth saving."

"And some to Meccah turn to pray, and I toward thy bed, Yasmin."

"The hour that dreams are brighter and winds colder, The hour that young love wakes on a white shoulder, O Master of the world, the Persian Dawn. That hour, O Master, shall be bright for thee: Thy merchants chase the morning down the sea, The braves who fight thy war unsheathe the sabre, The slaves who work thy mines are lashed to labour, For thee the waggons of the world are drawn— The ebony of night, the red of dawn!"

"We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go Always a little further; it may be Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow Across that angry or that glimmering sea,White on a throne or guarded in a cave There lies a prophet who can understand Why men were born: but surely we are brave, Who take the Golden Road to Samarkand."