The Saddest Noise

Between the March and April line

That magical frontier

Beyond which summer hesitates

Almost too heavenly near

The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

The maddest noise that grows and grows

The birds, they make it in the spring

At night's delicious close

The saddest noise I know

It makes us think of all the dead

That sauntered with us here

By separation's sorcery

Made cruelly more dear

It makes us think of what we had

And what we now deplore

We almost wish those siren throats

Would go and sing no more

An ear can break a human heart

As quickly as a spear

We wish the ear had not a heart

So dangerously near