[ { "title": "Music: An Ode", "author": "Algernon Charles Swinburne", "lines": [ "WAS it light that spake from the darkness,", "or music that shone from the word,", "When the night was enkindled with sound", "of the sun or the first-born bird?", "Souls enthralled and entrammelled in bondage", "of seasons that fall and rise,", "Bound fast round with the fetters of flesh,", "and blinded with light that dies,", "Lived not surely till music spake,", "and the spirit of life was heard.", "", "Music, sister of sunrise, and herald of life to be,", "Smiled as dawn on the spirit of man,", "and the thrall was free.", "Slave of nature and serf of time,", "the bondman of life and death,", "Dumb with passionless patience that breathed", "but forlorn and reluctant breath,", "Heard, beheld, and his soul made answer,", "and communed aloud with the sea.", "", "Morning spake, and he heard:", "and the passionate silent noon", "Kept for him not silence:", "and soft from the mounting moon", "Fell the sound of her splendour,", "heard as dawn's in the breathless night,", "Not of men but of birds whose note", "bade man's soul quicken and leap to light:", "And the song of it spake, and the light and the darkness", "of earth were as chords in tune." ], "linecount": "29" }, { "title": "Music's Empire", "author": "Andrew Marvell", "lines": [ "First was the world as one great cymbal made,", "Where jarring winds to infant Nature played.", "All music was a solitary sound,", "To hollow rocks and murm'ring fountains bound.", "", "Jubal first made the wilder notes agree;", "And Jubal tuned music's Jubilee;", "He call'd the echoes from their sullen cell,", "And built the organ's city where they dwell.", "", "Each sought a consort in that lovely place,", "And virgin trebles wed the manly bass.", "From whence the progeny of numbers new", "Into harmonious colonies withdrew.", "", "Some to the lute, some to the viol went,", "And others chose the cornet eloquent,", "These practicing the wind, and those the wire,", "To sing men's triumphs, or in Heaven's choir.", "", "Then music, the mosaic of the air,", "Did of all these a solemn noise prepare;", "With which she gain'd the empire of the ear,", "Including all between the earth and sphere.", "", "Victorious sounds! yet here your homage do", "Unto a gentler conqueror than you;", "Who though he flies the music of his praise,", "Would with you Heaven's Hallelujahs raise." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Music on Christmas Morning", "author": "Anne Bronte", "lines": [ "Music I love -­ but never strain", "Could kindle raptures so divine,", "So grief assuage, so conquer pain,", "And rouse this pensive heart of mine -­", "As that we hear on Christmas morn,", "Upon the wintry breezes borne.", "Though Darkness still her empire keep,", "And hours must pass, ere morning break;", "From troubled dreams, or slumbers deep,", "That music kindly bids us wake:", "It calls us, with an angel's voice,", "To wake, and worship, and rejoice;", "", "To greet with joy the glorious morn,", "Which angels welcomed long ago,", "When our redeeming Lord was born,", "To bring the light of Heaven below;", "The Powers of Darkness to dispel,", "And rescue Earth from Death and Hell.", "", "While listening to that sacred strain,", "My raptured spirit soars on high;", "I seem to hear those songs again", "Resounding through the open sky,", "That kindled such divine delight,", "In those who watched their flocks by night.", "", "With them, I celebrate His birth -­", "Glory to God, in highest Heaven,", "Good-will to men, and peace on Earth,", "To us a Saviour-king is given;", "Our God is come to claim His own,", "And Satan's power is overthrown!", "", "A sinless God, for sinful men,", "Descends to suffer and to bleed;", "Hell must renounce its empire then;", "The price is paid, the world is freed,", "And Satan's self must now confess,", "That Christ has earned a Right to bless:", "", "Now holy Peace may smile from heaven,", "And heavenly Truth from earth shall spring:", "The captive's galling bonds are riven,", "For our Redeemer is our king;", "And He that gave his blood for men", "Will lead us home to God again." ], "linecount": "42" }, { "title": "Perplexed Music", "author": "Elizabeth Barrett Browning", "lines": [ "EXPERIENCE, like a pale musician, holds", "A dulcimer of patience in his hand,", "Whence harmonies, we cannot understand,", "Of God; will in his worlds, the strain unfolds", "In sad-perplexed minors: deathly colds", "Fall on us while we hear, and countermand", "Our sanguine heart back from the fancyland", "With nightingales in visionary wolds.", "We murmur ' Where is any certain tune", "Or measured music in such notes as these ? '", "But angels, leaning from the golden seat,", "Are not so minded their fine ear hath won", "The issue of completed cadences,", "And, smiling down the stars, they whisper--", "SWEET." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "A Musical Instrument", "author": "Elizabeth Barrett Browning", "lines": [ "What was he doing, the great god Pan,", "Down in the reeds by the river?", "Spreading ruin and scattering ban,", "Splashing and paddling with hoofs of a goat,", "And breaking the golden lilies afloat", "With the dragon-fly on the river.", "", "He tore out a reed, the great god Pan,", "From the deep cool bed of the river:", "The limpid water turbidly ran,", "And the broken lilies a-dying lay,", "And the dragon-fly had fled away,", "Ere he brought it out of the river.", "", "High on the shore sat the great god Pan,", "While turbidly flowed the river;", "And hacked and hewed as a great god can,", "With his hard bleak steel at the patient reed,", "Till there was not a sign of the leaf indeed", "To prove it fresh from the river.", "", "He cut it short, did the great god Pan,", "(How tall it stood in the river!)", "Then drew the pith, like the heart of a man,", "Steadily from the outside ring,", "And notched the poor dry empty thing", "In holes, as he sat by the river.", "", "\"This is the way,\" laughed the great god Pan,", "(Laughed while he sat by the river)", "\"The only way, since gods began", "To make sweet music, they could succeed.\"", "Then, dropping his mouth to a hole in the reed,", "He blew in power by the river.", "", "Sweet, sweet, sweet, O Pan!", "Piercing sweet by the river!", "Blinding sweet, O great god Pan!", "The sun on the hill forgot to die,", "And the lilies revived, and the dragon-fly", "Came back to dream on the river.", "", "Yet half a beast is the great god Pan,", "To laugh as he sits by the river,", "Making a poet out of a man:", "The true gods sigh for the cost and pain—", "For the reed which grows nevermore again", "As a reed with the reeds in the river." ], "linecount": "42" }, { "title": "Musicians wrestle everywhere", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Musicians wrestle everywhere --", "All day -- among the crowded air", "I hear the silver strife --", "And -- walking -- long before the morn --", "Such transport breaks upon the town", "I think it that \"New Life\"!", "", "If is not Bird -- it has no nest --", "Nor \"Band\" -- in brass and scarlet -- drest --", "Nor Tamborin -- nor Man --", "It is not Hymn from pulpit read --", "The \"Morning Stars\" the Treble led", "On Time's first Afternoon!", "", "Some -- say -- it is \"the Spheres\" -- at play!", "Some say that bright Majority", "Of vanished Dames -- and Men!", "Some -- think it service in the place", "Where we -- with late -- celestial face --", "Please God -- shall Ascertain!" ], "linecount": "18" }, { "title": "Dying at my music!", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Dying at my music!", "Bubble! Bubble!", "Hold me till the Octave's run!", "Quick! Burst the Windows!", "Ritardando!", "Phials left, and the Sun!" ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "Better -- than Music! For I -- who heard it --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Better -- than Music! For I -- who heard it --", "I was used -- to the Birds -- before --", "This -- was different -- 'Twas Translation --", "Of all tunes I knew -- and more --", "", "'Twasn't contained -- like other stanza --", "No one could play it -- the second time --", "But the Composer -- perfect Mozart --", "Perish with him -- that Keyless Rhyme!", "", "So -- Children -- told how Brooks in Eden --", "Bubbled a better -- Melody --", "Quaintly infer -- Eve's great surrender --", "Urging the feet -- that would -- not -- fly --", "", "Children -- matured -- are wiser -- mostly --", "Eden -- a legend -- dimly told --", "Eve -- and the Anguish -- Grandame's story --", "But -- I was telling a tune -- I heard --", "", "Not such a strain -- the Church -- baptizes --", "When the last Saint -- goes up the Aisles --", "Not such a stanza splits the silence --", "When the Redemption strikes her Bells --", "", "Let me not spill -- its smallest cadence --", "Humming -- for promise -- when alone --", "Humming -- until my faint Rehearsal --", "Drop into tune -- around the Throne --" ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "The Bird her punctual music brings", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Bird her punctual music brings", "And lays it in its place --", "Its place is in the Human Heart", "And in the Heavenly Grace --", "What respite from her thrilling toil", "Did Beauty ever take --", "But Work might be electric Rest", "To those that Magic make --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Split the Lark -- and you'll find the Music --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Split the Lark -- and you'll find the Music --", "Bulb after Bulb, in Silver rolled --", "Scantilly dealt to the Summer Morning", "Saved for your Ear when Lutes be old.", "", "Loose the Flood -- you shall find it patent --", "Gush after Gush, reserved for you --", "Scarlet Experiment! Sceptic Thomas!", "Now, do you doubt that your Bird was true?" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "The fascinating chill that music leaves", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The fascinating chill that music leaves", "Is Earth's corroboration", "Of Ecstasy's impediment --", "'Tis Rapture's germination", "In timid and tumultuous soil", "A fine -- estranging creature --", "To something upper wooing us", "But not to our Creator --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Church Music", "author": "George Herbert", "lines": [ "Sweetest of sweets, I thank you: when displeasure", "Did through my body wound my mind,", "You took me thence, and in your house of pleasure", "A dainty lodging me assigned.", "", "Now I in you without a body move,", "Rising and falling with your wings:", "We both together sweetly live and love,", "Yet say sometimes, \"God help poor Kings\".", "", "Comfort, I'll die; for if you post from me", "Sure I shall do so, and much more:", "But if I travel in your company,", "You know the way to heaven's door." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "Celestial Music", "author": "John Donne", "lines": [ "I have a friend who still believes in heaven.", "Not a stupid person, yet with all she knows, she literally talks to God.", "She thinks someone listens in heaven.", "On earth she's unusually competent.", "Brave too, able to face unpleasantness.", "", "We found a caterpillar dying in the dirt, greedy ants crawling over it.", "I'm always moved by disaster, always eager to oppose vitality", "But timid also, quick to shut my eyes.", "Whereas my friend was able to watch, to let events play out", "According to nature. For my sake she intervened", "Brushing a few ants off the torn thing, and set it down", "Across the road.", "", "My friend says I shut my eyes to God, that nothing else explains", "My aversion to reality. She says I'm like the child who", "Buries her head in the pillow", "So as not to see, the child who tells herself", "That light causes sadness-", "My friend is like the mother. Patient, urging me", "To wake up an adult like herself, a courageous person-", "", "In my dreams, my friend reproaches me. We're walking", "On the same road, except it's winter now;", "She's telling me that when you love the world you hear celestial music:", "Look up, she says. When I look up, nothing.", "Only clouds, snow, a white business in the trees", "Like brides leaping to a great height-", "Then I'm afraid for her; I see her", "Caught in a net deliberately cast over the earth-", "", "In reality, we sit by the side of the road, watching the sun set;", "From time to time, the silence pierced by a birdcall.", "It's this moment we're trying to explain, the fact", "That we're at ease with death, with solitude.", "My friend draws a circle in the dirt; inside, the caterpillar doesn't move.", "She's always trying to make something whole, something beautiful, an image", "Capable of life apart from her.", "We're very quiet. It's peaceful sitting here, not speaking, The composition", "Fixed, the road turning suddenly dark, the air", "Going cool, here and there the rocks shining and glittering-", "It's this stillness we both love.", "The love of form is a love of endings." ], "linecount": "39" }, { "title": "Alexander's Feast; Or, The Power Of Music", "author": "John Dryden", "lines": [ "'Twas at the royal feast for Persia won", "By Philip's warlike son—", "Aloft in awful state", "The godlike hero sate", "On his imperial throne;", "His valiant peers were placed around,", "Their brows with roses and with myrtles bound", "(So should desert in arms be crowned);", "The lovely Thais by his side", "Sate like a blooming eastern bride", "In flower of youth and beauty's pride:—", "Happy, happy, happy pair!", "None but the brave", "None but the brave", "None but the brave deserves the fair!", "", "Timotheus placed on high", "Amid the tuneful quire", "With flying fingers touched the lyre;", "The trembling notes ascend the sky", "And heavenly joys inspire.", "The song began from Jove", "Who left his blissful seats above—", "Such is the power of mighty love!", "A dragon's fiery form belied the god", "Sublime on radiant spires he rode", "When he to fair Olympia prest,", "And while he sought her snowy breast,", "Then round her slender waist he curled,", "And stamped an image of himself, a sovereign of the world.", "- The listening crowd admire the lofty sound!", "A present deity! they shout around:", "A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound!", "With ravished ears", "The monarch hears,", "Assumes the god,", "Affects to nod,", "And seems to shake the spheres.", "", "The praise of Bacchus then the sweet musician sung,", "Of Bacchus ever fair and ever young:", "The jolly god in triumph comes!", "Sound the trumpets, beat the drums!", "Flushed with a purple grace", "He shows his honest face:", "Now give the hautboys breath; he comes, he comes!", "Bacchus, ever fair and young,", "Drinking joys did first ordain;", "Bacchus' blessings are a treasure,", "Drinking is the soldier's pleasure:", "Rich the treasure,", "Sweet the pleasure,", "Sweet is pleasure after pain.", "", "Soothed with the sound, the king grew vain;", "Fought all his battles o'er again,", "And thrice he routed all his foes, and thrice he slew the slain.", "The master saw the madness rise,", "His glowing cheeks, his ardent eyes;", "And while he Heaven and Earth defied", "Changed his hand and checked his pride.", "He chose a mournful Muse", "Soft pity to infuse:", "He sung Darius great and good,", "By too severe a fate", "Fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen,", "Fallen from his high estate,", "And weltering in his blood;", "Deserted, at his utmost need,", "By those his former bounty fed;", "On the bare earth exposed he lies", "With not a friend to close his eyes.", "- With downcast looks the joyless victor sate,", "Revolving in his altered soul", "The various turns of Chance below;", "And now and then a sigh he stole,", "And tears began to flow.", "", "The mighty master smiled to see", "That love was in the next degree;", "'Twas but a kindred-sound to move,", "For pity melts the mind to love.", "Softly sweet, in Lydian measures", "Soon he soothed his soul to pleasures.", "War, he sung, is toil and trouble,", "Honour but an empty bubble;", "Never ending, still beginning,", "Fighting still, and still destroying;", "If the world be worth thy winning,", "Think, O think, it worth enjoying:", "Lovely Thais sits beside thee,", "Take the good the gods provide thee!", "- The many rend the skies with loud applause;", "So Love was crowned, but Music won the cause.", "The prince, unable to conceal his pain,", "Gazed on the fair", "Who caused his care,", "And sighed and looked, sighed and looked,", "Sighed and looked, and sighed again:", "At length with love and wine at once opprest", "The vanquished victor sunk upon her breast.", "", "Now strike the golden lyre again:", "A louder yet, and yet a louder strain!", "Break his bands of sleep asunder", "", "And rouse him like a rattling peal of thunder.", "Hark, hark! the horrid sound", "Has raised up his head:", "As awaked from the dead", "And amazed he stares around.", "Revenge, revenge, Timotheus cries,", "See the Furies arisel", "See the snakes that they rear", "How they hiss in their hair,", "And the sparkles that flash from their eyes!", "Behold a ghastly band,", "Each a torch in his hand!", "Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain", "And unburied remain", "Inglorious on the plain:", "Give the vengeance due", "To the valiant crew!", "Behold how they toss their torches on high,", "How they point to the Persian abodes", "And glittering temples of their hostile gods.", "- The princes applaud with a furious joy:", "And the King seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy;", "Thais led the way", "To light him to his prey,", "And like another Helen, fired another Troy!", "", "- Thus, long ago,", "Ere heaving bellows learned to blow,", "While organs yet were mute,", "Timotheus, to his breathing flute", "And sounding lyre,", "Could swell the soul to rage, or kindle soft desire.", "At last divine Cecilia came,", "Inventress of the vocal frame;", "The sweet enthusiast from her sacred store", "Enlarged the former narrow bounds,", "And added length to solemn sounds,", "With Nature's mother-wit, and arts unknown before.", "- Let old Timotheus yield the prize", "Or both divide the crown;", "He raised a mortal to the skies;", "She drew an angel down!" ], "linecount": "141" }, { "title": "At A Solemn Musick", "author": "John Milton", "lines": [ "Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav'ns joy,", "Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Vers,", "Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ", "Dead things with inbreath'd sense able to pierce,", "And to our high-rais'd phantasie present,", "That undisturbed Song of pure content,", "Ay sung before the saphire-colour'd throne", "To him that sits theron", "With Saintly shout, and solemn Jubily,", "Where the bright Seraphim in burning row", "Their loud up-lifted Angel trumpets blow,", "And the Cherubick host in thousand quires", "Touch their immortal Harps of golden wires,", "With those just Spirits that wear victorious Palms,", "Hymns devout and holy Psalms", "Singing everlastingly;", "That we on Earth with undiscording voice", "May rightly answer that melodious noise;", "As once we did, till disproportion'd sin", "Jarr'd against natures chime, and with harsh din", "The fair musick that all creatures made", "To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway'd", "In perfect Diapason, whilst they stood", "In first obedience, and their state of good.", "O may we soon again renew that Song,", "And keep in tune with Heav'n, till God ere long", "To his celestial consort us unite,", "To live with him, and sing in endles morn of light.", "", "Note: 6 content] Manuscript reads concent as does the Second", "Edition; so that content is probably a misprint." ], "linecount": "30" }, { "title": "ENDYMION (For music)", "author": "Oscar Wilde", "lines": [ "The apple trees are hung with gold,", "And birds are loud in Arcady,", "The sheep lie bleating in the fold,", "The wild goat runs across the wold,", "But yesterday his love he told,", "I know he will come back to me.", "O rising moon! O Lady moon!", "Be you my lover's sentinel,", "You cannot choose but know him well,", "For he is shod with purple shoon,", "You cannot choose but know my love,", "For he a shepherd's crook doth bear,", "And he is soft as any dove,", "And brown and curly is his hair.", "", "The turtle now has ceased to call", "Upon her crimson-footed groom,", "The grey wolf prowls about the stall,", "The lily's singing seneschal", "Sleeps in the lily-bell, and all", "The violet hills are lost in gloom.", "O risen moon! O holy moon!", "Stand on the top of Helice,", "And if my own true love you see,", "Ah! if you see the purple shoon,", "The hazel crook, the lad's brown hair,", "The goat-skin wrapped about his arm,", "Tell him that I am waiting where", "The rushlight glimmers in the Farm.", "", "The falling dew is cold and chill,", "And no bird sings in Arcady,", "The little fauns have left the hill,", "Even the tired daffodil", "Has closed its gilded doors, and still", "My lover comes not back to me.", "False moon! False moon! O waning moon!", "Where is my own true lover gone,", "Where are the lips vermilion,", "The shepherd's crook, the purple shoon?", "Why spread that silver pavilion,", "Why wear that veil of drifting mist?", "Ah! thou hast young Endymion", "Thou hast the lips that should be kissed!" ], "linecount": "42" }, { "title": "Serenade (For Music)", "author": "Oscar Wilde", "lines": [ "The western wind is blowing fair", "Across the dark AEgean sea,", "And at the secret marble stair", "My Tyrian galley waits for thee.", "Come down! the purple sail is spread,", "The watchman sleeps within the town,", "O leave thy lily-flowered bed,", "O Lady mine come down, come down!", "", "She will not come, I know her well,", "Of lover's vows she hath no care,", "And little good a man can tell", "Of one so cruel and so fair.", "True love is but a woman's toy,", "They never know the lover's pain,", "And I who loved as loves a boy", "Must love in vain, must love in vain.", "", "O noble pilot, tell me true,", "Is that the sheen of golden hair?", "Or is it but the tangled dew", "That binds the passion-flowers there?", "Good sailor come and tell me now", "Is that my Lady's lily hand?", "Or is it but the gleaming prow,", "Or is it but the silver sand?", "", "No! no! 'tis not the tangled dew,", "'Tis not the silver-fretted sand,", "It is my own dear Lady true", "With golden hair and lily hand!", "O noble pilot, steer for Troy,", "Good sailor, ply the labouring oar,", "This is the Queen of life and joy", "Whom we must bear from Grecian shore!", "", "The waning sky grows faint and blue,", "It wants an hour still of day,", "Aboard! aboard! my gallant crew,", "O Lady mine, away! away!", "O noble pilot, steer for Troy,", "Good sailor, ply the labouring oar,", "O loved as only loves a boy!", "O loved for ever evermore!" ], "linecount": "40" }, { "title": "From Spring Days To Winter (For Music)", "author": "Oscar Wilde", "lines": [ "In the glad springtime when leaves were green,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "I sought, amid the tangled sheen,", "Love whom mine eyes had never seen,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "Between the blossoms red and white,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "My love first came into my sight,", "O perfect vision of delight,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "The yellow apples glowed like fire,", "O merrily the throstle sings!", "O Love too great for lip or lyre,", "Blown rose of love and of desire,", "O the glad dove has golden wings!", "", "But now with snow the tree is grey,", "Ah, sadly now the throstle sings!", "My love is dead: ah! well-a-day,", "See at her silent feet I lay", "A dove with broken wings!", "Ah, Love! ah, Love! that thou wert slain -", "Fond Dove, fond Dove return again!" ], "linecount": "22" }, { "title": "Stanzas for Music", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "I speak not, I trace not, I breathe not thy name,", "There is grief in the sound, there is guilt in the fame:", "But the tear which now burns on my cheek may impart", "The deep thoughts that dwell in that silence of heart.", "", "Too brief for our passion, too long for our peace,", "Were those hours--can their joy or their bitterness cease?", "We repent, we abjure, we will break from our chain,--", "We will part, we will fly to--unite it again!", "", "Oh! thine be the gladness, and mine be the guilt!", "Forgive me, adored one!--forsake, if thou wilt;--", "But the heart which is thine shall expire undebased", "And _man_ shall not break it--whatever _thou_ mayst.", "", "And stern to the haughty, but humble to thee,", "This soul, in its bitterest blackness, shall be:", "And our days seem as swift, and our moments more sweet,", "With thee by my side, than with worlds at our feet.", "", "One sigh of thy sorrow, one look of thy love,", "Shall turn me or fix, shall reward or reprove;", "And the heartless may wonder at all I resign--", "Thy lip shall reply, not to them, but to _mine_." ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "TO MUSIC, TO BECALM HIS FEVER", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Charm me asleep, and melt me so", "With thy delicious numbers;", "That being ravish'd, hence I go", "Away in easy slumbers.", "Ease my sick head,", "And make my bed,", "Thou Power that canst sever", "From me this ill;--", "And quickly still,", "Though thou not kill", "My fever.", "", "Thou sweetly canst convert the same", "From a consuming fire,", "Into a gentle-licking flame,", "And make it thus expire.", "Then make me weep", "My pains asleep,", "And give me such reposes,", "That I, poor I,", "May think, thereby,", "I live and die", "'Mongst roses.", "", "Fall on me like a silent dew,", "Or like those maiden showers,", "Which, by the peep of day, do strew", "A baptism o'er the flowers.", "Melt, melt my pains", "With thy soft strains;", "That having ease me given,", "With full delight,", "I leave this light,", "And take my flight", "For Heaven." ], "linecount": "33" }, { "title": "SOFT MUSIC", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "The mellow touch of music most doth wound", "The soul, when it doth rather sigh, than sound." ], "linecount": "2" }, { "title": "TO MUSIC", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Begin to charm, and as thou strok'st mine ears", "With thine enchantment, melt me into tears.", "Then let thy active hand scud o'er thy lyre,", "And make my spirits frantic with the fire;", "That done, sink down into a silvery strain,", "And make me smooth as balm and oil again." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "TO MUSIC: A SONG", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Music, thou queen of heaven, care-charming spell,", "That strik'st a stillness into hell;", "Thou that tam'st tigers, and fierce storms, that rise,", "With thy soul-melting lullabies;", "Fall down, down, down, from those thy chiming spheres", "To charm our souls, as thou enchant'st our ears." ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "TO MUSIC, TO BECALM A SWEET SICK YOUTH", "author": "Robert Herrick", "lines": [ "Charms, that call down the moon from out her sphere,", "On this sick youth work your enchantments here!", "Bind up his senses with your numbers, so", "As to entrance his pain, or cure his woe.", "Fall gently, gently, and a-while him keep", "Lost in the civil wilderness of sleep:", "That done, then let him, dispossess'd of pain,", "Like to a slumbering bride, awake again." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Away With Funeral Music", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "AWAY with funeral music - set", "The pipe to powerful lips -", "The cup of life's for him that drinks", "And not for him that sips." ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Music At The Villa Marina", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "FOR some abiding central source of power,", "Strong-smitten steady chords, ye seem to flow", "And, flowing, carry virtue. Far below,", "The vain tumultuous passions of the hour", "Fleet fast and disappear; and as the sun", "Shines on the wake of tempests, there is cast", "O'er all the shattered ruins of my past", "A strong contentment as of battles won.", "", "And yet I cry in anguish, as I hear", "The long drawn pageant of your passage roll", "Magnificently forth into the night.", "To yon fair land ye come from, to yon sphere", "Of strength and love where now ye shape your flight,", "O even wings of music, bear my soul!", "", "Ye have the power, if but ye had the will,", "Strong-smitten steady chords in sequence grand,", "To bear me forth into that tranquil land", "Where good is no more ravelled up with ill;", "Where she and I, remote upon some hill", "Or by some quiet river's windless strand,", "May live, and love, and wander hand in hand,", "And follow nature simply, and be still.", "", "From this grim world, where, sadly, prisoned, we", "Sit bound with others' heart-strings as with chains,", "And, if one moves, all suffer, - to that Goal,", "If such a land, if such a sphere, there be,", "Thither, from life and all life's joys and pains,", "O even wings of music, bear my soul!" ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "Sing -- Sing -- Music Was Given", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "Sing -- sing -- Music was given", "To brighten the gay, and kindle the loving;", "Souls here, like planets in heaven,", "By harmony's laws alone are kept moving.", "Beauty may boast of her eyes and her cheeks,", "But Love from the lips his true archery wings;", "And she, who but feathers the dart when she speaks,", "At once sends it home to the heart when she sings.", "Then sing -- sing -- Music was given,", "To brighten the gay, and kindle the loving;", "Souls here, like planets in heaven,", "By harmony's laws alone are kept moving.", "", "When Love, rock'd by his mother,", "Lay sleeping as calm as slumber could make him,", "\"Hush, hush,\" said Venus, \"no other", "Sweet voice but his own is worthy to wake him.\"", "Dreaming of music he slumber'd the while,", "Till faint from his lip a soft melody broke,", "And Venus, enchanted, look'd on with a smile,", "While Love to his own sweet singing awoke.", "Then sing -- sing -- Music was given,", "To brighten the gay, and kindle the loving;", "Souls here, like planets in heaven,", "By harmony's laws alone are kept moving." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "On Music", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "When through life unblest we rove,", "Losing all that made life dear,", "Should some notes we used to love,", "In days of boyhood, meet our ear,", "Oh! how welcome breathes the strain!", "Wakening thoughts that long have slept,", "Kindling former smiles again", "In faded eyes that long have wept.", "", "Like the gale, that sighs along", "Beds of oriental flowers,", "Is the grateful breath of song,", "That once was heard in happier hours.", "Fill'd with balm the gale sighs on,", "Though the flowers have sunk in death;", "So, when pleasure's dream is gone,", "Its memory lives in Music's breath.", "", "Music, oh, how faint, how weak,", "Language fades before thy spell!", "Why should Feeling ever speak,", "When thou canst breathe her soul so well?", "Friendship's balmy words may feign,", "Love's are even more false than they;", "Oh! 'tis only music's strain", "Can sweetly soothe, and not betray." ], "linecount": "24" }, { "title": "Proud Music of The Storm.", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "1", "PROUD music of the storm!", "Blast that careers so free, whistling across the prairies!", "Strong hum of forest tree-tops! Wind of the mountains!", "Personified dim shapes! you hidden orchestras!", "You serenades of phantoms, with instruments alert,", "Blending, with Nature’s rhythmus, all the tongues of nations;", "You chords left us by vast composers! you choruses!", "You formless, free, religious dances! you from the Orient!", "You undertone of rivers, roar of pouring cataracts;", "You sounds from distant guns, with galloping cavalry!", "Echoes of camps, with all the different bugle-calls!", "Trooping tumultuous, filling the midnight late, bending me powerless,", "Entering my lonesome slumber-chamber—Why have you seiz’d me?", "", "2", "Come forward, O my Soul, and let the rest retire;", "Listen—lose not—it is toward thee they tend;", "Parting the midnight, entering my slumber-chamber,", "For thee they sing and dance, O Soul.", "", "A festival song!", "The duet of the bridegroom and the bride—a marriage-march,", "With lips of love, and hearts of lovers, fill’d to the brim with love;", "The red-flush’d cheeks, and perfumes—the cortege swarming, full of friendly", " faces,", " young and old,", "To flutes’ clear notes, and sounding harps’ cantabile.", "", "3", "Now loud approaching drums!", "Victoria! see’st thou in powder-smoke the banners torn but flying? the rout of the", " baffled?", "Hearest those shouts of a conquering army?", "", "(Ah, Soul, the sobs of women—the wounded groaning in agony,", "The hiss and crackle of flames—the blacken’d ruins—the embers of cities,", "The dirge and desolation of mankind.)", "", "4", "Now airs antique and medieval fill me!", "I see and hear old harpers with their harps, at Welsh festivals:", "I hear the minnesingers, singing their lays of love,", "I hear the minstrels, gleemen, troubadours, of the feudal ages.", "", "5", "Now the great organ sounds,", "Tremulous—while underneath, (as the hid footholds of the earth,", "On which arising, rest, and leaping forth, depend,", "All shapes of beauty, grace and strength—all hues we know,", "Green blades of grass, and warbling birds—children that gambol and play—the", " clouds of", " heaven above,)", "The strong base stands, and its pulsations intermits not,", "Bathing, supporting, merging all the rest—maternity of all the rest;", "And with it every instrument in multitudes,", "The players playing—all the world’s musicians,", "The solemn hymns and masses, rousing adoration,", "All passionate heart-chants, sorrowful appeals,", "The measureless sweet vocalists of ages,", "And for their solvent setting, Earth’s own diapason,", "Of winds and woods and mighty ocean waves;", "A new composite orchestra—binder of years and climes—ten-fold renewer,", "As of the far-back days the poets tell—the Paradiso,", "The straying thence, the separation long, but now the wandering done,", "The journey done, the Journeyman come home,", "And Man and Art, with Nature fused again.", "", "6", "Tutti! for Earth and Heaven!", "The Almighty Leader now for me, for once has signal’d with his wand.", "", "The manly strophe of the husbands of the world,", "And all the wives responding.", "", "The tongues of violins!", "(I think, O tongues, ye tell this heart, that cannot tell itself;", "This brooding, yearning heart, that cannot tell itself.)", "", "7", "Ah, from a little child,", "Thou knowest, Soul, how to me all sounds became music;", "My mother’s voice, in lullaby or hymn;", "(The voice—O tender voices—memory’s loving voices!", "Last miracle of all—O dearest mother’s, sister’s, voices;)", "The rain, the growing corn, the breeze among the long-leav’d corn,", "The measur’d sea-surf, beating on the sand,", "The twittering bird, the hawk’s sharp scream,", "The wild-fowl’s notes at night, as flying low, migrating north or south,", "The psalm in the country church, or mid the clustering trees, the open air camp-meeting,", "The fiddler in the tavern—the glee, the long-strung sailor-song,", "The lowing cattle, bleating sheep—the crowing cock at dawn.", "", "8", "All songs of current lands come sounding ’round me,", "The German airs of friendship, wine and love,", "Irish ballads, merry jigs and dances—English warbles,", "Chansons of France, Scotch tunes—and o’er the rest,", "Italia’s peerless compositions.", "", "Across the stage, with pallor on her face, yet lurid passion,", "Stalks Norma, brandishing the dagger in her hand.", "", "I see poor crazed Lucia’s eyes’ unnatural gleam;", "Her hair down her back falls loose and dishevell’d.", "", "I see where Ernani, walking the bridal garden,", "Amid the scent of night-roses, radiant, holding his bride by the hand,", "Hears the infernal call, the death-pledge of the horn.", "", "To crossing swords, and grey hairs bared to heaven,", "The clear, electric base and baritone of the world,", "The trombone duo—Libertad forever!", "", "From Spanish chestnut trees’ dense shade,", "By old and heavy convent walls, a wailing song,", "Song of lost love—the torch of youth and life quench’d in despair,", "Song of the dying swan—Fernando’s heart is breaking.", "", "Awaking from her woes at last, retriev’d Amina sings;", "Copious as stars, and glad as morning light, the torrents of her joy.", "", "(The teeming lady comes!", "The lustrious orb—Venus contralto—the blooming mother,", "Sister of loftiest gods—Alboni’s self I hear.)", "", "9", "I hear those odes, symphonies, operas;", "I hear in the William Tell, the music of an arous’d and angry people;", "I hear Meyerbeer’s Huguenots, the Prophet, or Robert;", "Gounod’s Faust, or Mozart’s Don Juan.", "", "10", "I hear the dance-music of all nations,", "The waltz, (some delicious measure, lapsing, bathing me in bliss;)", "The bolero, to tinkling guitars and clattering castanets.", "", "I see religious dances old and new,", "I hear the sound of the Hebrew lyre,", "I see the Crusaders marching, bearing the cross on high, to the martial clang of cymbals;", "I hear dervishes monotonously chanting, interspers’d with frantic shouts, as they", " spin", " around, turning always towards Mecca;", "I see the rapt religious dances of the Persians and the Arabs;", "Again, at Eleusis, home of Ceres, I see the modern Greeks dancing,", "I hear them clapping their hands, as they bend their bodies,", "I hear the metrical shuffling of their feet.", "", "I see again the wild old Corybantian dance, the performers wounding each other;", "I see the Roman youth, to the shrill sound of flageolets, throwing and catching their", " weapons,", "As they fall on their knees, and rise again.", "", "I hear from the Mussulman mosque the muezzin calling;", "I see the worshippers within, (nor form, nor sermon, argument, nor word,", "But silent, strange, devout—rais’d, glowing heads—extatic faces.)", "", "11", "I hear the Egyptian harp of many strings,", "The primitive chants of the Nile boatmen;", "The sacred imperial hymns of China,", "To the delicate sounds of the king, (the stricken wood and stone;)", "Or to Hindu flutes, and the fretting twang of the vina,", "A band of bayaderes.", "", "12", "Now Asia, Africa leave me—Europe, seizing, inflates me;", "To organs huge, and bands, I hear as from vast concourses of voices,", "Luther’s strong hymn, Eine feste Burg ist unser Gott;", "Rossini’s Stabat Mater dolorosa;", "Or, floating in some high cathedral dim, with gorgeous color’d windows,", "The passionate Agnus Dei, or Gloria in Excelsis.", "", "13", "Composers! mighty maestros!", "And you, sweet singers of old lands—Soprani! Tenori! Bassi!", "To you a new bard, carolling free in the west,", "Obeisant, sends his love.", "", "(Such led to thee, O Soul!", "All senses, shows and objects, lead to thee,", "But now, it seems to me, sound leads o’er all the rest.)", "", "14", "I hear the annual singing of the children in St. Paul’s Cathedral;", "Or, under the high roof of some colossal hall, the symphonies, oratorios of Beethoven,", " Handel,", " or Haydn;", "The Creation, in billows of godhood laves me.", "", "Give me to hold all sounds, (I, madly struggling, cry,)", "Fill me with all the voices of the universe,", "Endow me with their throbbings—Nature’s also,", "The tempests, waters, winds—operas and chants—marches and dances,", "Utter—pour in—for I would take them all.", "", "15", "Then I woke softly,", "And pausing, questioning awhile the music of my dream,", "And questioning all those reminiscences—the tempest in its fury,", "And all the songs of sopranos and tenors,", "And those rapt oriental dances, of religious fervor,", "And the sweet varied instruments, and the diapason of organs,", "And all the artless plaints of love, and grief and death,", "I said to my silent, curious Soul, out of the bed of the slumber-chamber,", "Come, for I have found the clue I sought so long,", "Let us go forth refresh’d amid the day,", "Cheerfully tallying life, walking the world, the real,", "Nourish’d henceforth by our celestial dream.", "", "And I said, moreover,", "Haply, what thou hast heard, O Soul, was not the sound of winds,", "Nor dream of raging storm, nor sea-hawk’s flapping wings, nor harsh scream,", "Nor vocalism of sun-bright Italy,", "Nor German organ majestic—nor vast concourse of voices—nor layers of harmonies;", "Nor strophes of husbands and wives—nor sound of marching soldiers,", "Nor flutes, nor harps, nor the bugle-calls of camps;", "But, to a new rhythmus fitted for thee,", "Poems, bridging the way from Life to Death, vaguely wafted in night air, uncaught,", " unwritten,", "Which, let us go forth in the bold day, and write." ], "linecount": "190" }, { "title": "That Music Always Round Me.", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "THAT music always round me, unceasing, unbeginning—yet long untaught I did not hear;", "But now the chorus I hear, and am elated;", "A tenor, strong, ascending, with power and health, with glad notes of day-break I hear,", "A soprano, at intervals, sailing buoyantly over the tops of immense waves,", "A transparent bass, shuddering lusciously under and through the universe,", "The triumphant tutti—the funeral wailings, with sweet flutes and violins—all", " these I", " fill myself with;", "I hear not the volumes of sound merely—I am moved by the exquisite meanings,", "I listen to the different voices winding in and out, striving, contending with fiery", " vehemence", " to excel each other in emotion;", "I do not think the performers know themselves—but now I think I begin to know them." ], "linecount": "13" }, { "title": "Italian Music in Dakota.", "author": "Walt Whitman", "lines": [ "THROUGH the soft evening air enwrinding all,", "Rocks, woods, fort, cannon, pacing sentries, endless wilds,", "In dulcet streams, in flutes’ and cornets’ notes,", "Electric, pensive, turbulent artificial,", "(Yet strangely fitting even here, meanings unknown before,", "Subtler than ever, more harmony, as if born here, related here,", "Not to the city’s fresco’d rooms, not to the audience of the opera house,", "Sounds, echoes, wandering strains, as really here at home,", "Sonnambula’s innocent love, trios with Norma’s anguish,", "And thy ecstatic chorus Poliuto;)", "Ray’d in the limpid yellow slanting sundown,", "Music, Italian music in Dakota.", "", "While Nature, sovereign of this gnarl’d realm,", "Lurking in hidden barbaric grim recesses,", "Acknowledging rapport however far remov’d,", "(As some old root or soil of earth its last-born flower or fruit,)", "Listens well pleas’d." ], "linecount": "17" }, { "title": "Saved by Music", "author": "William Topaz McGonagall", "lines": [ "At on time, in America, many years ago,", "Large gray wolves wont to wander to and fro;", "And from the farm yards they carried pigs and calves away,", "Which they devoured ravenously, without dismay.", "", "But, as the story goes, there was a negro fiddler called old Dick,", "Who was invited by a wedding party to give them music,", "In the winter time, when the snow lay thick upon the ground,", "And the rivers far and near were frozen all around.", "", "So away went Dick to the wedding as fast as he could go,", "Walking cautiously along o'er the crisp and crackling snow,", "And the path was a narrow one, the greater part of the way", "Through a dark forest, which filled his heart with dismay.", "", "And when hurrying onward, not to be late at the festival,", "He heard the howl of a wolf, which did his heart appal,", "And the howl was answered, and as the howl came near", "Poor Old Dick, fiddle in hand, began to shake with fear.", "", "And as the wolves gathered in packs from far and near,", "Old Dick in the crackling bushes did them hear,", "And they ran along to keep pace with him,", "Then poor Dick began to see the danger he was in.", "", "And every few minutes a wolf would rush past him with a snap,", "With a snapping sound like the ring of a steel trap,", "And the pack of wolves gathered with terrible rapidity,", "So that Dick didn't know whether to stand or flee.", "", "And his only chance, he thought, was to keep them at bay", "By preserving the greatest steadiness without dismay,", "Until he was out of the forest and on open ground,", "Where he thought a place of safety might be found.", "", "He remembered an old hut stood in the clearing,", "And towards it he was slowly nearing,", "And the hope of reaching it urged him on,", "But he felt a trifle dispirited and woe-begone.", "", "And the poor fellow's heart with fear gave a bound,", "When he saw the wolves' green eyes glaring all around,", "And they rushed at him boldly, one after another,", "Snapping as they passed, which to him was great bother.", "", "And Dick sounded his fiddle and tried to turn them back,", "And the sound caused the wolves to leap back in a crack,", "When Dick took to his heels at full run,", "But now poor Dick's danger was only begun:", "", "For the wolves pursued him without delay,", "But Dick arrived at the hut in great dismay,", "And had just time to get on the roof and play,", "And at the strains of the music the wolves felt gay.", "", "And for several hours he sat there in pain,", "Knowing if he stopped playing the wolves would be at him again,", "But the rage of the wolves abated to the subduing strains,", "And at last he was rewarded for all his pains:", "", "For the wedding-party began to weary for some music,", "And they all came out to look for old Dick,", "And on top of the hut they found him fiddling away,", "And they released him from his dangerous position without delay." ], "linecount": "52" }, { "title": "Sonnet 8: Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?", "Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy:", "Why lov'st thou that which thou receiv'st not gladly,", "Or else receiv'st with pleasure thine annoy?", "If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,", "By unions married, do offend thine ear,", "They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds", "In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.", "Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,", "Strikes each in each by mutual ordering;", "Resembling sire and child and happy mother,", "Who, all in one, one pleasing note do sing:", " Whose speechless song being many, seeming one,", " Sings this to thee: 'Thou single wilt prove none.'" ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Sonnet 128: How oft when thou, my music, music play'st", "author": "William Shakespeare", "lines": [ "How oft when thou, my music, music play'st,", "Upon that blessed wood whose motion sounds", "With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st", "The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,", "Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap,", "To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,", "Whilst my poor lips which should that harvest reap,", "At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand!", "To be so tickled, they would change their state", "And situation with those dancing chips,", "O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,", "Making dead wood more bless'd than living lips.", " Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,", " Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Abt Vogler: After he has been extemporizing upon the musical instrument of his invention", "author": "Robert Browning", "lines": [ "Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build,", " Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work,", "Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed", " Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk,", "Man, brute, reptile, fly,--alien of end and of aim,", " Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep removed,--", "Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name,", " And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved!", "", "Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of mine,", " This which my keys in a crowd pressed and importuned to raise!", "Ah, one and all, how they helped, would dispart now and now combine,", " Zealous to hasten the work, heighten their master his praise!", "And one would bury his brow with a blind plunge down to hell,", " Burrow awhile and build, broad on the roots of things,", "Then up again swim into sight, having based me my palace well,", " Founded it, fearless of flame, flat on the nether springs.", "", "And another would mount and march, like the excellent minion he was,", " Ay, another and yet another, one crowd but with many a crest,", "Raising my rampired walls of gold as transparent as glass,", " Eager to do and die, yield each his place to the rest:", "For higher still and higher (as a runner tips with fire,", " When a great illumination surprises a festal night--", "Outlining round and round Rome's dome from space to spire)", " Up, the pinnacled glory reached, and the pride of my soul was in sight.", "", "In sight? Not half! for it seemed, it was certain, to match man's birth,", " Nature in turn conceived, obeying an impulse as I;", "And the emulous heaven yearned down, made effort to reach the earth.", " As the earth had done her best, in my passion, to scale the sky:", "Novel splendours burst forth, grew familiar and dwelt with mine.", " Not a point nor peak but found and fixed its wandering star;", "Meteor-moons, balls of blaze: and they did not pale nor pine,", " For earth had attained to heaven, there was no more near nor far.", "", "Nay more; for there wanted not who walked, in the glare and glow,", " Presences plain in the place; or, fresh, from the Protoplast,", "Furnished for ages to come, when a kindlier wind should blow,", " Lured now to begin and live, in a house to their liking at last:", "Or else the wonderful Dead who have passed thro' the body and gone,", " But were back once more to breathe in an old world worth their new:", "What never had been, was now; what was, as it shall be anon;", " And what is,--shall I say, matched both? for I was made perfect too.", "", "All thro' my keys that gave their sounds to a wish of my soul,", " All thro' my soul that praised as its wish flowed visibly forth,", "All thro' music and me! For think, had I painted the whole,", " Why, there it had stood, to see, nor the process so wonder-worth:", "Had I written the same, made verse--still, effect proceeds from cause,", " Ye know why the forms are fair, ye hear how the tale is told;", "It is all triumphant art, but art in obedience to laws,", " Painter and poet are proud, in the artist-list enrolled:--", "", "But here is the finger of God, a flash of the will that can,", " Existent behind all laws, that made them, and, lo, they are!", "And I know not if, save in this, such gift be allowed to man,", " That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth sound, but a star.", "Consider it well: each tone of our scale in itself is naught;", " It is everywhere in the world--loud, soft, and all is said:", "Give it to me to use! I mix it with two in my thought,", " And, there! Ye have heard and seen; consider and bow the head!", "", "Well, it is gone at last, the palace of music I reared;", " Gone! and the good tears start, the praises that come too slow;", "For one is assured at first, one scarce can say that he feared,", " That he even gave it a thought, the gone thing was to go.", "Never to be again! But many more of the kind", " As good, nay, better perchance: is this your comfort to me?", "To me, who must be saved because I cling with my mind", " To the same, same self, same love, same God: ay, what was, shall be.", "", "Therefore to whom turn I but to Thee, the ineffable Name?", " Builder and maker, Thou, of houses not made with hands!", "What, have fear of change from Thee who art ever the same?", " Doubt that Thy power can fill the heart that Thy power expands?", "There shall never be one lost good! What was, shall live as before;", " The evil is null, is naught, is silence implying sound;", "What was good, shall be good, with, for evil, so much good more;", " On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven, a perfect round.", "", "All we have willed or hoped or dreamed of good shall exist;", " Not its semblance, but itself; no beauty, nor good, nor power", "Whose voice has gone forth, but each survives for the melodist,", " When eternity affirms the conception of an hour.", "The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard.", " The passion that left the ground to lose itself in the sky,", "Are music sent up to God by the lover and the bard;", " Enough that he heard it once; we shall hear it by and by.", "", "And what is our failure here but a triumph's evidence", " For the fulness of the days? Have we withered or agonized?", "Why else was the pause prolonged but that singing might issue thence?", " Why rushed the discords in but that harmony should be prized?", "Sorrow is hard to bear, and doubt is slow to clear,", " Each sufferer says his say, his scheme of the weal and woe:", "But God has a few of us whom He whispers in the ear;", " The rest may reason and welcome; 'tis we musicians know.", "", "Well, it is earth with me; silence resumes her reign:", " I will be patient and proud, and soberly acquiesce.", "Give me the keys. I feel for the common chord again,", " Sliding by semitones, till I sink to the minor,--yes,", "And I blunt it into a ninth, and I stand on alien ground,", " Surveying awhile the heights I rolled from into the deep:", "Which, hark, I have dared and done, for my resting-place is found,", " The C Major of this life: so, now I will try to sleep." ], "linecount": "96" }, { "title": "Stanzas for Music", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "Bright be the place of thy soul!", " No lovelier spirit than thine", "E'er burst from its mortal control,", " In the orbs of the blessed to shine.", "On earth thou wert all but divine,", " As thy soul shall immortally be;", "And our sorrow may cease to repine", " When we know that thy God is with thee.", "", "Light be the turf of thy tomb!", " May its verdure like emeralds be!", "There should not be the shadow of gloom", " In aught that reminds us of thee.", "Young flowers and an evergreen tree", " May spring from the spot of thy rest:", "But nor cypress nor yew let us see;", " For why should we mourn for the blest?" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Stanzas for Music", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "There be none of Beauty's daughters", " With a magic like thee;", "And like music on the waters", " Is thy sweet voice to me:", "When, as if its sound were causing", "The charméd Ocean's pausing,", "The waves lie still and gleaming,", "And the lulled winds seem dreaming:", "", "And the midnight Moon is weaving", " Her bright chain o'er the deep;", "Whose breast is gently heaving,", " As an infant's asleep:", "So the spirit bows before thee,", "To listen and adore thee;", "With a full but soft emotion,", "Like the swell of Summer's ocean.", "", "" ], "linecount": "17" }, { "title": "Stanzas for Music", "author": "George Gordon, Lord Byron", "lines": [ "They say that Hope is happiness;", " But genuine Love must prize the past,", "And Memory wakes the thoughts that bless:", " They rose the first--they set the last;", "", "And all that Memory loves the most", " Was once our only Hope to be,", "And all that Hope adored and lost", " Hath melted into Memory.", "", "Alas! it is delusion all:", " The future cheats us from afar,", "Nor can we be what we recall,", " Nor dare we think on what we are." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "A Fragment: To Music", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Silver key of the fountain of tears,", "Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild;", "Softest grave of a thousand fears,", "Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child,", "Is laid asleep in flowers." ], "linecount": "5" }, { "title": "Another Fragment: To Music", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "No, Music, thou art not the 'food of Love.'", "Unless Love feeds upon its own sweet self,", "Till it becomes all Music murmurs of." ], "linecount": "3" }, { "title": "Fragment: Music and Sweet Poetry", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "How sweet it is to sit and read the tales", "Of mighty poets and to hear the while", "Sweet music, which when the attention fails", "Fills the dim pause--" ], "linecount": "4" }, { "title": "Music", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "I pant for the music which is divine,", "My heart in its thirst is a dying flower;", "Pour forth the sound like enchanted wine,", "Loosen the notes in a silver shower;", "Like a herbless plain, for the gentle rain,", "I gasp, I faint, till they wake again.", "", "Let me drink of the spirit of that sweet sound,", "More, oh more,--I am thirsting yet;", "It loosens the serpent which care has bound", "Upon my heart to stifle it;", "The dissolving strain, through every vein,", "Passes into my heart and brain.", "", "As the scent of a violet withered up,", "Which grew by the brink of a silver lake,", "When the hot noon has drained its dewy cup,", "And mist there was none its thirst to slake--", "And the violet lay dead while the odour flew", "On the wings of the wind o'er the waters blue--", "", "As one who drinks from a charmed cup", "Of foaming, and sparkling, and murmuring wine,", "Whom, a mighty Enchantress filling up,", "Invites to love with her kiss divine..." ], "linecount": "22" } ]