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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


ILL TIDINGS (THE STUDIO CONCERT) by RICHARD WATSON GILDER

First Line: IN THE LONG STUDIO FROM WHOSE TOWERING WALLS
Last Line: ONE THAT I LOVE LIES ON HER BED OF PAIN.
Subject(s): SYMPHONIES; CONCERTS;

IN the long studio from whose towering walls
Calm Pheidias beams, and Angelo appalls,
Eager the listening, downcast faces throng
While violins their piercing tones prolong.
At times I know not if I see, or hear,
Yon statue's smile, or some not sorrowing tear
Down-falling on the surface of the stream
That music pours across my waking dream.
Ah, is it then a dream that while repeat
Those chords, like strokes of silver-shod light feet,
And the great Master's music marches on --
I hear the horses of the Parthenon?

But all to-day seems vague, unreal, far,
With fear and discord in the dearest strain,
For 'neath yon slowly-sinking western star
One that I love lies on her bed of pain.




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