Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window
Amy Lowell
Track 5 on Sword Blades and Poppy Seed
1 viewer
Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window Lyrics
What charm is yours, you faded old-world tapestries,
Of outworn, childish mysteries,
Vague pageants woven on a web of dream!
And we, pushing and fighting in the turbid stream
Of modern life, find solace in your tarnished broideries.
Old lichened halls, sun-shaded by huge cedar-trees,
The layered branches horizontal stretched, like Japanese
Dark-banded prints. Carven cathedrals, on a sky
Of faintest colour, where the gothic spires fly
And sway like masts, against a shifting breeze.
Worm-eaten pages, clasped in old brown vellum, shrunk
From over-handling, by some anxious monk.
Or Virgin's Hours, bright with gold and graven
With flowers, and rare birds, and all the Saints of Heaven,
And Noah's ark stuck on Ararat, when all the world had sunk.
They soothe us like a song, heard in a garden, sung
By youthful minstrels, on the moonlight flung
In cadences and falls, to ease a queen,
Widowed and childless, cowering in a screen
Of myrtles, whose life hangs with all its threads unstrung.
Of outworn, childish mysteries,
Vague pageants woven on a web of dream!
And we, pushing and fighting in the turbid stream
Of modern life, find solace in your tarnished broideries.
Old lichened halls, sun-shaded by huge cedar-trees,
The layered branches horizontal stretched, like Japanese
Dark-banded prints. Carven cathedrals, on a sky
Of faintest colour, where the gothic spires fly
And sway like masts, against a shifting breeze.
Worm-eaten pages, clasped in old brown vellum, shrunk
From over-handling, by some anxious monk.
Or Virgin's Hours, bright with gold and graven
With flowers, and rare birds, and all the Saints of Heaven,
And Noah's ark stuck on Ararat, when all the world had sunk.
They soothe us like a song, heard in a garden, sung
By youthful minstrels, on the moonlight flung
In cadences and falls, to ease a queen,
Widowed and childless, cowering in a screen
Of myrtles, whose life hangs with all its threads unstrung.
About
Have the inside scoop on this song?
Sign up and drop some knowledge
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 4.The Cyclists
- 5.Sunshine through a Cobwebbed Window
- 7.Astigmatism
- 9.Storm-Racked
- 10.Convalescence
- 11.Patience
- 12.Apology
- 13.A Petition
- 14.A Blockhead
- 15.Stupidity
- 16.Irony
- 17.Happiness
- 20.The Foreigner
- 21.Absence
- 22.A Gift
- 23.The Bungler
- 25.Miscast I
- 26.Miscast II
- 27.Anticipation
- 28.Vintage
- 30.Obligation
- 31.The Taxi
- 33.The Temple
- 40.The Basket
- 41.In a Castle
- 43.The Exeter Road
- 44.The Shadow
- 45.The Forsaken
- 46.Late September
- 47.The Pike
- 48.The Blue Scarf
- 49.White and Green
- 50.Aubade
- 51.Music
- 52.A Lady
- 53.In a Garden
- 54.A Tulip Garden
Comments
