The Inn of Apollo

Have you supped at the Inn of Apollo,

While the last light fades from the West?

Has the Lord of the Sun, at the world's end,

Poured you his ripest and best?

O, there's wine in that Inn of Apollo;

Wine, mellow and deep as the sunset,

With mirth in it, singing as

As the skylark sings in a high wind,

High over a crisp white cloud.

Have you laughed in that Inn of Apollo?

Was the whole world molten in

At once, by the heat of that wine?

Did the stars and the tides and your own

Dance with the heavenly Nine?

For they dance in that Inn of Apollo.

Was their poetry croaked by the sages,

Or born in a whisper of wings?

For the music that masters the ages,

Be sure, is the music that sings!

Yes, they sing in that Inn of Apollo.

This poem was taken from Alfred Noyes' book The Elfin Artist and other poems published by William Blackwood and Sons in 1920.

JS