THE barren music of a word or phrase

THE barren music of a word or phrase,
The futile arts of syllable and stress,
He sought. The poetry of common days
He did not guess.

The simplest, sweetest rhythms life affords--
Unselfish love, true effort truly done,
The tender themes that underlie all words--
He knew not one.


The human cadence and the subtle chime
Of little laughters, home and child and wife,
He knew not. Artist merely in his rhyme,
Not in his life.