HELAS

Name: Rosa Mystica - Helas
Author: Oscar Wilde

To drift with every passion till my soul

Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play,

Is it for this that I have given away

Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control?-

Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll

Scrawled over on some boyish holiday

With idle songs for pipe and virelay

Which do but mar the secret of the whole.

Surely that was a time I might have trod

The sunlit heights, and from life’s dissonance

Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God;

is that time dead? lo! with a little rod

I did but touch the honey of romance-

And must I lose a soul’s inheritance?

Contents:

Related Resources

Oscar Wilde

Download Options

Title: Rosa Mystica

Select an option:

*Note: A download may not start for up to 60 seconds.

Email Options

Title: Rosa Mystica

Select an option:

Email addres:

*Note: It may take up to 60 seconds for for the email to be generated.

Chicago: Oscar Wilde, "Helas," Rosa Mystica Original Sources, accessed April 3, 2025, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=2XGTSYC1ZZ1EY9G.

MLA: Wilde, Oscar. "Helas." Rosa Mystica, Original Sources. 3 Apr. 2025. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=2XGTSYC1ZZ1EY9G.

Harvard: Wilde, O, 'Helas' in Rosa Mystica. Original Sources, retrieved 3 April 2025, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=2XGTSYC1ZZ1EY9G.