Come hither child -- who gifted thee With power to touch that string so well? How daredst thou rouse up thoughts in me Thoughts that I would -- but cannot quell? Nay chide not lady long ago I heard those notes in Ula's hall And had I known they'd waken woe I'd weep their music to recall But thus it was one festal night When I was hardly six years old I stole away from crowds and light And sought a chamber dark and cold I had no one to love me there I knew no comrade and no friend And so I went to sorrow where Heaven only heaven saw me bend Loud blew the wind 'twas sad to stay From all that splendour barred away I imaged in the lonely room A thousand forms of fearful gloom And with my wet eyes raised on high I prayed to God that I might die Suddenly in that silence drear A sound of music reached my ear And then a note I hear it yet So full of soul so deeply sweet I thought that Gabriel's self had come To take me to my father's home Three times it rose that seraph-strain Then died nor lived ever again But still the words and still the tone Swell round my heart when all alone | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPECIAL PLEADING by SIDNEY LANIER NURSING HOME: THE VISIT by KAREN SWENSON CHURCH-MUSICK [CHURCH MUSIC] by GEORGE HERBERT IDLENESS by SILAS WEIR MITCHELL A WOMAN'S QUESTION by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER THE BLESSED DAMOZEL by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE DOUBLE-HEADED SNAKE OF NEWBURY by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |