They Told Me

They Told Me written by Walter de la Mare

Poems (1906)

Link to further information

They told me Pan was dead, but I
     Oft marvelled who it was that sang
Down the green valleys languidly
     Where the grey elder-thickets hang.

Sometimes I thought it was a bird
     My soul had charged with sorcery;
Sometimes it seemed my own heart heard
     Inland the sorrow of the sea.

But even where the primrose sets
     The seal of her pale loveliness,
I found amid the violets
     Tears of an antique bitterness.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 50 years or less, but may still be copyrighted in the USA and some countries in Europe. It is the responsibility of the user to determine whether the works are in the public domain in his or her respective country.