BRING music! stir the brooding air With an ethereal breath! Bring sounds, my struggling soul to bear Up from the couch of death! A voice, a flute, a dreamy lay, Such as the southern breeze Might waft, at golden fall of day, O'er blue, transparent seas! Oh, no! not such! That lingering spell Would lure me back to life, When my weaned heart hath said farewell, And passed the gates of strife. Let not a sigh of human love Blend with the song its tone! Let no disturbing echo move One that must die alone! But pour a solemn-breathing strain Filled with the soul of prayer! Let a life's conflict, fear, and pain, And trembling hope be there. Deeper, yet deeper! In my thought Lies more prevailing sound, A harmony intensely fraught With pleading more profound: A passion unto music given, A sweet, yet piercing cry; A breaking heart's appeal to Heaven, A bright faith's victory! Deeper! Oh! may no richer power Be in those notes enshrined? Can all which crowds on earth's last hour No fuller language find? Away! and hush the feeble song, And let the chord be stilled! Far in another land ere long My dream shall be fulfilled. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A VALENTINE TO SHERWOOD ANDERSON by GERTRUDE STEIN FROM THE GREATER TESTAMENT (XXII, XXIII, AND XXVI) by FRANCOIS VILLON MY LOVE'S GUARDIAN ANGEL by WILLIAM BARNES OUT WHERE THE WEST BEGINS by ARTHUR CHAPMAN A LOVE SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR LYING IN THE GRASS by EDMUND WILLIAM GOSSE COLUMBUS [JANUARY, 1487] by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY |