There came a youth upon the earth,

      Some thousand years ago,

      Whose slender hands were nothing worth,

      Whether to plow, or reap, or sow.

      Upon an empty tortoise-shell

      He stretched some chords, and drew

      Music that made men's bosoms swell

      Fearless, or brimmed their eyes with dew.

      Then King Admetus, one who had

      Pure taste by right divine,

      Decreed his singing not too bad

      To hear between the cups of wine:

      And so, well pleased with being soothed

      Into a sweet half-sleep,

      Three times his kingly beard he smoothed,

      And made him viceroy o'er his sheep.

      His words were simple words enough,

      And yet he used them so,

      That what in other mouths was rough

      In his seemed musical and low.

      Men called him but a shiftless youth,

      In whom no good they saw;

      And yet, unwittingly, in truth,

      They made his careless words their law.

      They knew not how he learned at all,

      For idly, hour by hour,

      He sat and watched the dead leaves fall,

      Or mused upon a common flower.

      It seemed the loveliness of things

      Did teach him all their use,

      For, in mere weeds, and stones, and springs

      He found a healing power profuse.

      Men granted that his speech was wise,

      But, when a glance they caught

      Of his slim grace and woman's eyes,

      They laughed, and called him good-for-naught.

      Yet after he was dead and gone

      And e'en his memory dim,

      Earth seemed more sweet to live upon,

      More full of love, because of him.

      And day by day more holy grew

      Each spot where he had trod,

      Till after-poets only knew

      Their first-born brother as a god.