Anne Charlotte Lynch Botta

Lines to One Who Wished to Read a Poem I Had Written

Nay, read it not, thou wouldst not know
 What lives within my heart,
For from that fount it does not flow;
 ’Tis but the voice of Art.

I could not bid my proud heart speak,
 Before the idle throng;
Rather in silence would it break
 With its full tide of Song.

Yes, rather would it break, than bare,
 To cold and careless eyes,
The hallowed dreams that linger there,
 The tears and agonies.

My lyre is skillful to repress
 Each deep, impassioned tone;
Its gushing springs of tenderness
 Would flow for one alone.

The rock, that to the parching sand
 Would yield no dewy drop,
Struck by the pilgrim prophet’s wand,
 Gave all its treasures up.

My heart then, is my only lyre;
 The prophet hath not spoken,
Nor kindled its celestial fire;
 So, let its chords be broken.

I would not thou shouldst hear those lays,
 Though harsh they might not be;
Though thou, perchance, might’st hear and praise,
 They would not speak of me.