Heart and Shrine

I will make my heart a shrine
To songs of everlasting time.
I will raise the silver walls,
Festooned with argent waterfalls,

And flowers of delicate kind and rare
That sweetly scent the sorrowing air.
I will make my heart a shrine
To songs of everlasting time.

I will make my heart a shrine
To sorrows of unending time.
I will raise the roof above,
Where softly coos the mourning dove,

Who lost her love so long ago
That none else remain who know.
I will make my heart a shrine
To sorrows of unending time.

I will make my heart a shrine 
To knowledge captured out of time.
I will carve the walls with shelves
Where shining lie books bound by elves,

Which tell, in remote terms, stories,
Of autumn and sunsets and dying glories.
I will make my heart a shrine
To knowledge captured out of time.

I will make my heart a shrine
To glowing autumns old as time.
I will carpet the stony floor
With leaves of trees green no more,

And the colors scattered by the wind
Shall with loveliness be twinned.
I will make my heart a shrine
To glowing autumns old as time.

I will make my heart a shrine
To beauties enduring beyond time.
I will carve them in crystal-glass,
In nodding violets, in woven grass,

In strains of brokenhearted tune,
In water lit by stars and moon.
I will make my heart a shrine
To beauties enduring beyond time.

I will make my heart a shrine
To stars and moon of mortal time.
I will open wide the doors to night,
So may shine in the sweet moonlight,

And lower the windows' bars
So I may see the glittering stars.
I will make my heart a shrine
To stars and moon of mortal time.

I will make my heart a shrine
To sights of wonders long lost in time.
I will hunt the Sphinx of Thebes,
And the spirits that haunt the leaves,

And kindle the phoenix's wings,
To hear the song the siren sings.
I will make my heart a shrine
To sights of wonders long lost in time.