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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


FANTASIA by GERARD LABRUNIE

First Line: THERE IS AN AIR FOR WHICH I FAIN WOULD GIVE
Last Line: I KNEW, AND EVEN NOW I SEEM TO KNOW.

THERE is an air for which I fain would give
All that Mozart, Rossini, Weber wrote;
An ancient air with sad funcreal note,
In which for me do secret raptures live.

Each time I hear it, by two hundred years
My soul seems to grow younger; 'tis the reign
Of Louis the thirteenth:--Outstretched appears
A hill, which sunset's golden glories stain.

A brick-built mansion next, adorned with stone,
Its windows all with ruby colours glowing
Amid wide parks, which a broad river own,
Washing its feet through grass and flowers flowing.

At her high lattice is a lady seen;
Fair with black eyes, in garb of long ago,
Whom in some prior life it may have been
I knew, and even now I seem to know.



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