Here you will find the Poem Apollo Laughs of poet Katharine Lee Bates
'APOLLO laughs,' the proverb tells, Far echo of old oracles, A Delphic waif, ?'Once in the year, Apollo laughs.' O laughter clear As sunshine, blithe as golden bells! What mortal folly parallels Olympian jest and so impels To mirth till Heaven's bright charioteer, Apollo, laughs? 'Tis when the annual critic knells The death of poetry, while swells Some faint, fresh wood-note, pioneer Of music earth shall thrill to hear. Then at Apollo's infidels Apollo laughs.
