A precious, mouldering pleasure 'tis
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,
His (venerable) hand to take,
And warming in our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young
His quaint opinions to inspect,
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;
What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty,
And Sophocles a man;
When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified
Facts, centuries before,
He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true:
He lived where dreams were born
His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so
And there's grief of hunger, and grief of cold
And there's a sort they call despair
There's banishment from primitive lust
In the slightest sight of fundamental air