Poems (Mary Coleridge)/Poem 236

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CCXXXVI WORDS
Words, dear companions! In my curtained cotI cooed and twittered like a nesting bird;And women spoke around me; but no wordCame to my baby lips—I knew you not.
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Yet laughter did I know. I have not learnedTo laugh more gaily since I first began.The reasons of his mirth are born in man;But man was born to laugh ere he discerned.
And tears I knew. Who taught me how to cry?Was it my mother's heart that whispered me?Tears have I wept since then that none could see,Nor laughed, as then I laughed, ere they were dry.
Words, dear companions! As the spirit grew,I loved you more and more with every hour.I felt the sweep, the whirlwind of the powerHe gave to man, when man created you.
Words, dear companions! glittering, fair and brave!Rapt in your rapture I was whirled along,Strong in the faith of old, the might of song,Struck through the silent portals of the grave.
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Words, dear companions! Into you I droveThe dark dumb devil that besets the heart;Nature in you rose to a heavenly art,And wrought on earth an airy heaven of love.
Ah, when ye leave me, will there yet remainThe laughter and the weeping all untaught?And will they, in the realm of perfect thought,Teach me new words to sing of life again?

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