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Subject: MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Matches Found: 357

UPDATE command denied to user 'poetryex_users'@'localhost' for table `poetryex_poems`.`subcnt` "JACKY, COME GIVE ME THY FIDDLE", by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
Last Line: For many a joyful day / my fiddle and I have had
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


1956, THE YEAR MY SISTER, USING HER ILL HEALTH ONCE AGAIN ..., by SUSAN FIRER    Poem Source                    
First Line: My mother even hated
Last Line: With an ear for a good accordion %and all the musics one can make
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Sickness; Sisters


A BANJO SONG, by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, dere's lots o' keer an' trouble
Last Line: Like dat one upon de wall.
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


A BANJO SONG, by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: W'en de banjos wuz a-ringin'
Last Line: We'll dance tel de day done break.
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments; Singing & Singers; Songs


A DUETTIST TO HER PIANOFORTE; SONG OF SILENCE (E.L.H - H.C.H.), by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Since every sound moves memories
Last Line: Nay: hushed, hushed, hushed, you are for me!
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Silence


A FIDDLER'S VALENTINE, by ARTHUR THOMAS QUILLER-COUCH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Pretty player, from thy strings
Last Line: Kiss, and say good-bye to me!
Alternate Author Name(s): Q; Quiller-couch, A. T.
Subject(s): Fiddles; Holidays; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Valentine's Day


A PRELUDE, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Little conjurer of keys
Last Line: Little conjurer of keys.
Subject(s): Life; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Singing & Singers; Soul; Songs


A SONG, by BRADFORD STEWART    Poem Text                    
First Line: The fairy music is silvery sweet
Last Line: In the love-lighted eyes of you.
Subject(s): Dancing & Dancers; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Trumpets


ABT VOGLER, by ROBERT BROWNING    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build
Last Line: The c major of this life: so, now I will try to sleep.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Religion; Theology


ACCIDENTALS, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Driving thirteenth street, I have the sense
Last Line: Has gone, and all my pots are full of tears
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


ACCORDION, by ROBERT WILLIAM SERVICE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Some carol of the banjo, to its measure keeping time
Last Line: To the cinder-swinging satellites of hell
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


ACCORDION REPAIRMAN, by DIANE JARVENPA    Poem Source                    
First Line: Almost losing her to the night
Last Line: Weightless and immortal as the heavens
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments


ADAGIO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The swing in the hips of a man
Last Line: Who begins her warble knowing %she has all day to sing
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


ADDRESS TO MY HARP, by MARY TIGHE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, my loved harp! Companion dear
Last Line: To pensive gloom a silent prey.
Alternate Author Name(s): Blachford, Mary
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


AEOLIAN HARP (1), by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O pale green sea
Last Line: And constant silence, with a message from the blest?
Alternate Author Name(s): Pollex, D.; Walker, Patricius
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


AEOLIAN HARP (TO TWO YOUNG MUSICIANS), by PHOEBE SMITH    Poem Text                    
First Line: Taut strings that ever stir
Last Line: In a never-ending strain.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


AFTER THE SYMPHONY, by CALE YOUNG RICE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The last finale had crashed
Last Line: Then slow sleep muted all to oblivion.
Subject(s): Grief; Happiness; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Youth; Sorrow; Sadness; Joy; Delight


ALLEGRISSIMO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: His words get away, so many ballons
Last Line: She is so happy, there is absolutely nothing %she can say
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


AMOR TRIUMPHANS: 6. THE BARREL-ORGAN, by ARTHUR WILLIAM SYMONS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Enigmatical, tremulous
Last Line: The voice of my heart is crying in you.
Subject(s): Longing; Organs (musical Instruments)


AN AEOLIAN HARP, by KATHERINE HARRIS BRADLEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Dost thou not hear? Amid dun, lonely
Last Line: With ineffectual plaint as from a tomb.
Alternate Author Name(s): Field, Michael (with Edith Emma Cooper)
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


AN IMPROMPTU; ... FOR THE COMPLETION OF THE GREAT ORGAN, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I asked three little maidens who heard the organ play
Last Line: "and what you heard last evening were seraph lips and lyres!"
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


AN ODE ON AEOLUS'S HARP, by JAMES THOMSON (1700-1748)    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ethereal race, inhabitants of air
Last Line: For, till you cease, my muse forgets to sing.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


ARION, by MARY ANN EVANS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Arion, whose melodic soul
Last Line: Like a pierced eagle fell.
Alternate Author Name(s): Eliot, George; Cross, Marian Lewes; Evans, Marian; Ann, Mary
Subject(s): Death; Goddesses & Gods; Greece; Harps; Musical Instruments; Mythology; Mythology - Classical; Dead, The; Greeks; Lyres


ARPEGGIATION, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: A combed chord
Last Line: If you look down, %you fall
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


AS ACCENT, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: A horn behind you which says go
Last Line: You were sure of what you'd seen. %any sharp pain
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


AS DIMINUENDO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Can you feel the speaker's breath as he comes closer?
Last Line: Do you really believe this ends in silence?
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


ASPIRATIONS: 4, by MATHILDE BLIND    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Am I, indeed, th' aeolian harp
Last Line: And flaming grandly on and on.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lake, Claude
Subject(s): Grief; God; Conduct Of Life; Harps; Musical Instruments; Sorrow; Sadness; Lyres


AT THE PIANO, by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A woman was playing
Last Line: And the phantom hid nigh.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


AULD REEKIE, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When chitterin' cauld the day sall daw
Last Line: Auld reekie, still and on!
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments


BAG-PIPES AT SEA, by CLINTON SCOLLARD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Above the shouting of the gale
Last Line: His highland home!
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Musical Instruments


BAGPIPE MUSIC, by FREDERICK LOUIS MACNEICE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis         Recitation     Poet's Biography
First Line: It's no go the merry-go-round, it's no go the rickshaw
Alternate Author Name(s): Macneice, Louis
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Blavatsky, Helena P. (1831-1891); Depressions, Economic; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Scotland; Theosophy; Recessions


BAGPIPE MUSIC, by FREDERICK LOUIS MACNEICE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It's no go the merry-go-round, it's no go the rickshaw
Last Line: But if you break the bloody glass you won't hold up the weather
Alternate Author Name(s): Macneice, Louis
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Blavatsky, Helena P. (1831-1891); Depressions, Economic; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Scotland; Theosophy


BAGPIPE PLAYER, by LEONORA SPEYER    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: He plays his little tune in water
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Musical Instruments


BANJO MINE, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Now the gloom of a mist-laden evening
Last Line: "then go back to your leathern case, banjo, / while my thought goes beyond your control"
Subject(s): Banjos;music & Musicians;musical Instruments


BARREL ORGAN, by DANIEL MARK EPSTEIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Since my vivian left me
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


BASS: IN MEMORY OF JIMMY GARRISON, by RACHEL M. HARPER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Sometimes I wish
Last Line: My woman was wood
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


BILLY AND HIS DRUM, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Ho! It's come, kids, come!
Last Line: Ef you don't hear little billy an' his big bass drum!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Children; Drums; Judgment Day; Musical Instruments; Noises; Childhood; End Of The World; Doomsday; Fall Of Man


BLACK DRUM, by ENID SHOMER    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: At last the fish thrashed
Last Line: Every silence, was a roar
Subject(s): Black (color); Drums; Musical Instruments


BLACK KEYS, by MARGARET R. RICHTER    Poem Text                    
First Line: My fingers falter even in the scale
Last Line: How sad a thing in love is one false note.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


BRECHVA'S HARP-SONG, by ERNEST RHYS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Little harp, at thy cry
Last Line: Him all king!
Alternate Author Name(s): Rhys, Ernest Percival
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


BROCADE ZITHER, by LI SHANG-YIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: This brocade zither, for no apparent reason, has fifty strings.
Last Line: But is at this instant already dispossessed
Subject(s): Time; Zithers (musical Instruments)


BY THE FIRE ('AM KAMIN'); AFTER ROBERT SCHUMAN, by LISA RUSS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Tsk, tsk of the metronome
Last Line: Leaping again from the dark, ash-silted cave
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


CALLIOPE, by STUART FRIEBERT    Poem Source                    
First Line: Steamers going by downriver used to have them
Last Line: Is smooth and blue, and the circus poster grampa brought %from budapest just beginning to come free
Subject(s): Calliopes (musical Instruments)


CANTUS, by RICHARD FOERSTER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Not this smoke, this spent wick, but the pale
Last Line: Death but the dying
Subject(s): Melodies; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Singing And Singers


CAROLAN'S PROPHECY, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: A sound of music, from amidst the hills
Last Line: A young sweet spirit gone.
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Courtship; Harps; Musical Instruments; O'carolan, Turlough (1670-1738); Prophecy & Prophets; Women; Lyres


CAROUSEL, by RICHARD ROERSTER    Poem Source                    
First Line: As the calliope pipes, the children skirl
Subject(s): Calliopes (musical Instruments)


CASUALTIES: 26. PARTY SONG, by JOHN PEPPER CLARK    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Here we mill drinking by midnight
Last Line: Like lights over lagos
Alternate Author Name(s): Clark-bekederemo, J. P.; Clark, J. P.
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments; Parties; Singing And Singers


CIRCUS PARADE, by OLIVE BEAUPRE MILLER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Tomorrow, tomorrow's the circus parade!
Last Line: And the wheezing, old calliope is %the very tail end of the show!
Subject(s): Calliopes (musical Instruments); Circus; Parades


CLARINET, by CHARLES LAURENCE NORTH    Poem Source                    
First Line: Less than a recurrent dream, but more haunting
Last Line: Brightening and darkening the sesonant bell
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


CLAVICHORD, by ELEANOR MAY SARTON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
First Line: She keeps her clavichord
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


CLIFF DWELLER LYRICS: THE SOLOIST, by BERTON BRALEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lady, you who sing soprano
Last Line: Or I'll throw a bomb!
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos; Singing & Singers; Voices; Songs


COMMUNITY ORCHESTRA, by DAVID KELLER    Poem Source                    
First Line: It is not too late to find our chairs
Last Line: But not explain, like joy
Subject(s): Bands; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


CONCERT BY SEGOVIA, by DIANE JARVENPA    Poem Source                    
First Line: From sor to de visee to albeniz
Last Line: No longer afraid of its many answers
Subject(s): Guitars; Musical Instruments; Symphonies


CONVERSATION, by JEFFREY (JEFF) FRIEDMAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: My father sat %in an armchair
Last Line: And he beamed me a smile. %this is how we talked
Subject(s): Jazz; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments


CUBAN DANCE, by RAMON DE PALMA    Poem Source                    
First Line: Upon the air amid the night the orchestra is playing
Last Line: The outcry of our souls is heard amid thine echoes there!
Subject(s): Bands; Cuba; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


DELACROIX AND THE ORGAN AT ST. SULPICE, by JAMES RAGAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Hear the tulmult beneath the painted glass
Last Line: Hear each stroke burst permanently into fire
Subject(s): Delacroix, Eugene (1798-1863); Organs (musical Instruments)


DINING OUT, by JOHN KRUMBERGER    Poem Source                    
First Line: A man sings romantic ballads in the piano lounge swaying like a bear
Last Line: Cliff
Subject(s): Dinners And Dining; Grief; Love - Complaints; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Tears


DISSONANCES, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oft in the midst of music rare
Last Line: They were a part of the melody.
Subject(s): Air; Harps; Life; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Lyres


DROPPING INTO THE KEYS, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: How from height to the ivory water
Last Line: How then through the rising air, %fish shines
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


DRUM, by JOHN CHIPMAN FARRAR    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The drum's a very quiet fellow
Last Line: And beat him soundly for the band
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments


DRUM CRAZY, by CALVIN FORBES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The year of the drummer
Last Line: Of his bout against drums
Subject(s): Drums; Jazz; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments


DRUM CRAZY, by CALVIN FORBES    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The year of the drummer
Last Line: Of his bouts against the drums
Subject(s): Drums; Jazz; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments


DRUMS, by TOMAZ SALAMUN    Poem Source                    
First Line: I am the people's point of view, a cow
Last Line: They beat carpets, the color gets up with the sunrise. %morepeople will see me, with sunrise I becom
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments


DRUMS AND BRASS, by DONALD (GRADY) DAVIDSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Bring trumpet throats that are big with a gust of moons
Last Line: Till the untold morning be come and the dancers be fled.
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments; Trumpets


ECHOES, by MARGARET ROOT GARVIN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Snapped! - is the string of the harp
Last Line: But who so eloquent as they!
Subject(s): Echoes; Musical Instruments; Silence


ELINDA'S GLOVE, by RICHARD LOVELACE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Thou snowy farm with thy five tenements!
Last Line: Are still allow'd to fiddle with the case.
Variant Title(s): The Glove
Subject(s): Fiddles; Gloves; Musical Instruments; Mittens; Muffs


ELIZABETH AT THE PIANO, by HORACE GREGORY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
First Line: It is memory speaking, preternaturally clear
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


EPISTLE; TO THE EARL OF..., by CHARLES COTTON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: To write in verse, o count of mine
Last Line: I'm sunk for ever to mankind.
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Christmas; Musical Instruments; Stanhope, Philip Dormer (1694-1773); Nativity, The; Chesterfield, 4th Earl Of


EVERY GOOD BOY DOES FINE, by JARED LEISING    Poem Source                    
First Line: Hey, it's just a piano, baby
Last Line: Have never quit taking %those lessons
Subject(s): Learning; Musical Instruments; Pianos


F IS FOR FIDDLES, by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis            
First Line: What an enchanted world is this
Last Line: We leap the winter into spring.
Alternate Author Name(s): Davies, W. H.
Subject(s): Fiddles; Musical Instruments


FALSE, NOCTURNE, by LAWRENCE RAAB    Poem Source                    
First Line: Learning how to play the piano, I favored
Last Line: Why not try to feel in time?
Subject(s): Learning; Musical Instruments; Pianos


FANTASIA, by LEONARD EDWARD NATHAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: The old grand piano
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos; Travel


FAREWELL TO MY LYRE, by JAMES GATES PERCIVAL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lyre of my soul! The parting hour draws nigh
Last Line: Lyre of my soul, adieu! A long adieu.
Subject(s): Farewell; Harps; Musical Instruments; Parting; Lyres


FERMATA, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Fermata the thin silk umbrella
Last Line: Who came to him like a dark wind %from the south, the woman,fermata
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


FETES GALANTES: MANDOLINE, by PAUL VERLAINE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The singers of serenades
Last Line: Ecstasy of the moon.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


FIDDLE, by DAVID MOOLTEN    Poem Source                    
First Line: The endless details which compose a life
Last Line: Like the strings, nothing to us but a song
Subject(s): Fiddles; Musical Instruments


FIDDLEHEADS, by RICHARD FOERSTER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Only the first scrolls inscripted
Last Line: The skillet would whisper hosannas
Subject(s): Fiddles; Musical Instruments


FIDDLER, by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Once was a fiddler. Play could he
Last Line: But a bird sings on in the almond tree
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


FIGHT; THE TALE OF A GUNNER AT PLATTSBURGH, 1814, by PERCY MACKAYE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Jock bit his mittens off and blew his thumbs
Last Line: The world made free.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Variant Title(s): Fight
Subject(s): Drums; Freedom; Musical Instruments; Patriotism; Plattsburg, Battle Of; Selflessness; War Of 1812; Liberty


FORTISSIMO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: To play fortissimo
Last Line: The poet of least resistance %who writes past the end of his poem
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


FUGUE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Here is the yearn that sews her life
Last Line: To her skin, white as night sea, %the yearn dolphining through
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


GAY CHAPS AT THE BAR: PIANO AFTER WAR, by GWENDOLYN BROOKS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On a snug evening I shall watch her fingers
Variant Title(s): Piano After War
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Musical Instruments; Pianos


GAY CHAPS AT THE BAR: PIANO AFTER WAR, by GWENDOLYN BROOKS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: On a snug evening I shall watch her fingers
Last Line: And stone will shove the softness from my face
Variant Title(s): Piano After Wa
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Musical Instruments; Pianos


GIRL AT THE PIANO, by ELEANOR G. R. YOUNG    Poem Text                    
First Line: Such slender fingers
Last Line: And lo, the practice hour has hurried by!
Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


GLINT, by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My grandmother mentioned only once how the piano teacher she had as
Last Line: They're drifting just outside the tune.
Subject(s): Grandparents; Kisses; Lips; Music Teachers; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers


GLISSANDO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: To glide, %your thin edge
Last Line: Exult. Glissando says: %I fly
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


GOSPEL BANJO: HOMAGE TO LITTLE ROY LEWIS, by DAVID BOTTOMS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Three days I lay with a fire under my skin, in the guest room
Last Line: Which is the joy of waking on either side of the jordan.
Subject(s): Banjos; Baptism; Dreams; Lewis, Little Roy; Musical Instruments; Prayer Meetings; Christenings; Nightmares


GRACE NOTES, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Sometimes dance %astaire's clean brush before he taps
Last Line: Like astaire, %whose last dance blossomed into air
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


GREEN PIANO, by ROBERT PINSKY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Aeolian. Gratis. Great thunderer, half-ton infant of miracles
Last Line: Pink one, forever green one, white-and-gold one, comforter, living soul
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Neighbors; Pianos


GYMNOPEDIE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: A ring of naked boys
Last Line: I am afraid to touch them
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


HARPS HUNG UP IN BABYLON, by ARTHUR WILLIS COLTON    Poem Text                    
First Line: The harps hung up in babylon
Last Line: "my soul that's lost in babylon."
Subject(s): Babylon; Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


HARPS WE LOVE, by HENRY CLARENCE KENDALL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The harp we love hath a royal burst!
Last Line: When all the baser passions sleep.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


HAUNTING FINGERS; A PHANTASY IN A MUSEUM OF MUSICIAL INSTRUMENTS, by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Are you awake'
Last Line: And day crawled in.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


HOW LIKE A HARP, by MARGARETTE BALL DICKSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: How like a harp with quivering silver strings
Last Line: The distant music never sound again.
Subject(s): Harps; Melodies; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Lyres


IMPROVISATION, by PAUL S. NICKERSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Out from the silence
Last Line: Until the hour for sleep . . .
Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Organs (musical Instruments)


IN PRAISE OF A HARP, by OSBORN BERGIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: O harp of cnoe I cosgair
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments


INSTRUMENT FACTORY, BRAZIL, by KATHLEEN MCGOOKEY    Poem Source                    
First Line: It's simple enough to give away the coins in your heart, when dust settles
Last Line: #name?
Subject(s): Factories; Labor And Laborers; Musical Instruments; Sao Paulo, Brazil


INTENSIVE CARE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The old man breathes
Last Line: The last clean wings %have flown %from mr. Thalberg's hands
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


ISRAFIDDLESTRINGS, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: In heaven a spirit doth dwell
Last Line: Hearing my griddle-cry
Subject(s): Fiddles;hearts;heaven;musical Instruments; Paradise


IT WAS A GENTLE AIR, by FELIX RUBEN GARCIA SARMIENTO    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It was a gentle air of lilting spirals
Last Line: And cruel and eternal is her laughter of gold!
Alternate Author Name(s): Dario, Ruben
Subject(s): Beauty; Dancing And Dancers; Flowers; Melodies; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


KING ARTHUR: SONG, by JOHN DRYDEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How blest are shepherds, how happy their lasses
Last Line: Chorus: let not youth, ...
Subject(s): Happiness; Musical Instruments; Joy; Delight


KING ARTHUR: SONG, by JOHN DRYDEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh sight, the mother of desires
Last Line: And if we may discover, &c.
Subject(s): Happiness; Musical Instruments; Joy; Delight


KING ARTHUR: SONG, by JOHN DRYDEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How happy the lover
Last Line: The pleasures of love.
Subject(s): Happiness; Musical Instruments; Joy; Delight


KING ARTHUR: SONG, by JOHN DRYDEN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Your hay it is mow'd, and your corn is reap'd
Last Line: Chorus: let not youth, ...
Subject(s): Happiness; Musical Instruments; Joy; Delight


LAMENT OF THE ORGANIST OF NOTRE-DAME DE NICE, by JULES LAFORGUE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hark, already the winter crows
Last Line: I have made for the death of the earth.
Subject(s): Despair; Organs (musical Instruments)


LAMENT OF THE PIANOS ... OVERHEARD IN WELL-TO-DO QUARTERS, by JULES LAFORGUE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lead the soul whom letters have well nourished
Last Line: "o months, o linens, o meals!"
Subject(s): Despair; Musical Instruments; Pianos


LEARNING TO PLAY, by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Upon a tall piano stool
Last Line: "then I shall call it ""play."
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


LIFE IS LIKE A GOLDEN LYRE, by ROSE CAROLYN KATTERHENRY    Poem Text                    
First Line: Life is like a golden lyre
Last Line: To bring forth perfect harmony.
Subject(s): Life; Musical Instruments


LILY PAD, by DANIELA GIOSEFFI    Poem Source                    
First Line: She pulls a french horn from the bodice of her dress
Last Line: With a frog %singing on her breast
Subject(s): Horns (musical Instruments)


LISTENING TO THE ZITHER, by ZHENG YUNDUAN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Deep in the night all sounds hush
Last Line: The lofty wonders of heaven and earth are for naught
Subject(s): Zithers (musical Instruments)


LOST ART OF CHINA, by SARAH MATE    Poem Source                    
First Line: Little nikko njan plays the piano
Last Line: A work of art long gone %reborn
Subject(s): Art And Artists; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Poetry And Poets


LOVE'S MUSIC, by PHILIP BOURKE MARSTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Love held a harp between his hands, and
Last Line: Such was love's music, -- lo, the shatter'd harp!
Subject(s): Harps; Love; Musical Instruments; Lyres


MAIDEN SPEECH OF THE AEOLIAN HARP, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Soft and softlier hold me, friends
Last Line: And charm the anguish of the worst.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


MAKING THE CHOICE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: A piano to wear on her fingers
Last Line: Suddenly, everything whe thought %was fastened, comes undone
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


MARLBOROUGH FAIR, by MARGARET LOUISA WOODS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I warr'nt our street be near so wide
Last Line: And the long down is whispering low 'goodnight.'
Alternate Author Name(s): Woods, Mrs. Margaret Louisa Bradley
Subject(s): Abandonment; Amusement Parks; Animals; Children; Churchyards; Circus; Country Dances; Country Life; Entertainers; Festivals; Fiddles; Games; Guns; Lions; Marlborough, England; Merry-go-grounds; Mourning; Musical Instruments; Night; Pleasure; Desertion; C


MISS LIZA'S BANJER, by DANIEL WEBSTER DAVIS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Hi! Miss liza's got er banjer
Last Line: Must fust be in de soul.
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


MODULATION, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: At five, with tight french braids
Last Line: And the monarchs, with %their thousand paper wings
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


MONOCHROME, by BERTON BRALEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Your beauty is as subtle as a strain
Last Line: Brazen as cymbals, boisterous as drums!
Subject(s): Drums; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments


MORDENT, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: A mordent is a trick of light
Last Line: Its wings, which shiver %like the lashes of a dreaming boy
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


MORE BAGPIPE MUSIC, by ERIC O. PARROTT    Poem Source                    
First Line: It's all go to claridges, it's all go the champers
Last Line: But we'll not say how we made our pile, for that's another story
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Macneice, Louis (1907-1963); Musical Instruments


MUSIC, by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My friend went to the piano; spun the stool
Last Line: "how pretty!"" we said; and went on with our talk again."
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


MUSICIAN, by LOUISE BOGAN            Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where have these hands been
Alternate Author Name(s): Holden, Raymond, Mrs.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


MUSICIAN, by LOUISE BOGAN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Where have these hands been
Last Line: And, under the palm, the string %sings as it wished to sing
Alternate Author Name(s): Holden, Raymond, Mrs.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


MUSICIANS DEBATE EMBELLISHMENT, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Only liars dress the dead
Last Line: Her eyes are green as an emperor's jade
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


MY LAST FAREWELL TO MY HARP, by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: And must we part? Yes, part for ever
Last Line: And thou shalt calmly slumber here.
Subject(s): Absence; Harps; Musical Instruments; Separation; Isolation; Lyres


MY SWEET BROWN GAL, by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: W'en de clouds is hangin' heavy in de sky
Last Line: No, I means my fiddle -- dat 's my sweet brown gal!
Subject(s): Fiddles; Musical Instruments


NEAR MISS HAIKU, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Order out of chaos equals frogs
Last Line: Opens the book
Subject(s): Books; Jazz; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Poetry & Poets; Violins; Reading


OCTAVE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: It is what happens
Last Line: Calling across some dark orange dawn %to the farthest rim of rock
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


ON A MEMORIAL ORGAN, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: His life made music sweeter far than sound
Last Line: Now hearkens to the eternal harmonies.
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


ON A REED, by JAMES STEPHENS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I have a reed of oaten straw
Last Line: And throw your wicked halves away!
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Reeds


ON AN AEOLIAN HARP, by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: What heavenly music strikes my ravished ear
Last Line: And charm the sorrows of thy soul away.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


ON AN AEOLIAN HARP, by GEORGE CABOT LODGE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Lure of the night's daedalian sea-born breath
Last Line: To wake a sense, among thy weeping strings, %of other lives,like some unceasing dream
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments


ON AN OATEN STRAW, by FRANCIS LEDWIDGE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My harp is out of tune, and so I take
Last Line: Seated with pan upon the mossy weir.
Subject(s): Harps; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Mythology - Classical; Pan (mythology); Singing & Singers; Lyres; Songs


ON HEARING AN AEOLIAN HARP, by PETER BAYLEY JR.    Poem Text                    
First Line: Sure 'tis the voice of choired saints that flow
Last Line: As the blest relic of a happy day.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


ON ITS STAND ON THE EMPTY STAGE, by JAMES HARRISON    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: Enjoys the silence
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Nature; Silence


ON MARRIAGE, by JEFFREY GREENE    Poem Source                    
First Line: Mary took out her cello
Last Line: Before she knew me %and put her cello down
Subject(s): Cellos; Marriage; Memory; Musical Instruments


ON SEEING A NEEDLECASE IN THE FORM OF A HARP, by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Frowns are on every muse's face
Last Line: "love 'stoops' as fondly as he soars."
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


ON THE LUTES OF FRANCE: MANDOLIN, by THOMAS WALSH    Poem Text                    
First Line: They sound their serenades
Last Line: Amid the breeze's whirl.
Alternate Author Name(s): Gill, Roderick; Strange, Garrett
Subject(s): France; Musical Instruments


ONE AND ONE, by CECIL DAY LEWIS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I remember, as if it were yesterday
Last Line: Proving that one and one make one
Alternate Author Name(s): Blake, Nicolas
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


ONE AND ONE, by CECIL DAY LEWIS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I remember, as if it were yesterday
Alternate Author Name(s): Blake, Nicolas
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


ORGANIST, by MATTHIAS BARR    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: At the keyboard still he lingered
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


ORGANIST, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I played so badly,' said the organist
Last Line: Finding that work, which poor he deemed to be, %was still worth while
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


ORGANIST, by ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In his dim chapel day by day
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


OVERTONES, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Her white finger falls
Last Line: And then become nothing at all
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PARADE, by PHILIP LEGLER    Poem Source                    
First Line: Summer and I heard the sound of it
Last Line: And the calliope piping, piping
Subject(s): Calliopes (musical Instruments); Parades


PATE M'QUATTY ON HIS FIDDLE, by JAMES SHAW    Poem Text                    
First Line: O, I wouldna swap my auld fiddle
Last Line: I've daylight wherever I go.
Subject(s): Fiddles; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments


PEDALPOINT, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: A mother's heartbeat to her foetus
Last Line: Locks, passing in the panama night %from the one to the other sea
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PENNY TRUMPET, by RAPHAEL RUDNICK    Poem Source                    
First Line: I had a dog like a love
Last Line: Lips, breasts - led me to rooms %where trumpets play all night
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


PERFORMANCE ANXIETY, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Here is my case
Last Line: A sudden scurry of fur %transfixed by your high beams
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANIST WHO KEEPS A LOADED GUN ON HER PIANO..., by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The children know not to knock
Last Line: This fierce first step over %air, is worth dying for
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANIST'S DREAM, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: I shoulder in a sweat-stained bag
Last Line: He leaps for the letters %that are in my hand, my hand
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANIST'S FEAR OF DEATH, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The moment a finger's down
Last Line: Know what you call, %when you whistle in that yard
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANIST'S NEXT DAY, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Someone else %walked from the wings last night
Last Line: On my face %are the burns of their applause
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by CHON PONGGON    Poem Source                    
First Line: From the fingertips of a lady
Last Line: A sharpened edge %of the waves
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by FRANK DAVEY    Poem Source                    
First Line: I sit on the edge
Last Line: %hide my fists %in my hands
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by ANN DERNIER    Poem Source                    
First Line: I am dressing to meet my sister
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by JOHN DUFFRESNE    Poem Source                    
First Line: As clara leafed through her husband's %compositions in her lap
Last Line: A spare blue shape that curved away
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by KIMIKO HAHN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The children's banging on the piano
Last Line: That summer bedtime arrived %when the whole world closed its enormous eyelid
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by EMILY HIESTAND    Poem Source                    
First Line: Outside is the ocean
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by BILL HOLM    Poem Source                    
First Line: He got up, dragging his heavy parts
Last Line: The mind drawn back into the hands where %it always should have been: its only home
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by GREG KUZMA    Poem Source                    
First Line: I look at my daughter
Last Line: How empty is a life %without its music in it
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me
Last Line: Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lawrence, D. H.
Subject(s): Children; Memory; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Nostalgia; Pianos; Singing & Singers; Time; Childhood; Songs


PIANO, by HOLLY PRADO    Poem Source                    
First Line: White as candles then all the minor chords
Last Line: With nothing left to say %but every word has entered %as a lover enters and will not leave
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO, by LISA RUSS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Red riding hood and her grandmother
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos; Travel


PIANO AT MIDNIGHT, by MICHAEL CHARLES ALSTON MOTT    Poem Source                    
First Line: You stop your walk along the beach
Last Line: All debts are canceled. All are free
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Night; Pianos


PIANO BURIAL, by EDA LOU WALTON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Empty the garden where I played your singing
Last Line: Mountains-sides of aspen.
Subject(s): Decay; Flowers; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Rot; Decadence


PIANO IN SAINT PAUL, by LAURA LINNEA JENSEN    Poem Source                    
First Line: From memory %our piano
Last Line: For good sense-- %while I grieve %yet live
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO LESSONS, by RACHEL DACUS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The black and white keys had a watery shine. When depressed
Last Line: Music is the trail you leave as you fly
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO LESSONS, by SANDY MCINTOSH    Poem Source                    
First Line: (spoken) my sunt curled her fingers over mine
Last Line: Birth- day par- %ty
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO LESSONS, by BARON WORMSER    Poem Source                    
First Line: The johnsons have her so must we
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO PRACTICE, by JEANNE EMMONS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Your small fingers seek the keys
Last Line: A pressure becomes a kind of music
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO PRACTICE, by HOWARD MOSS    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Such splendid icecaps and hard rills, such weights
Last Line: Half fact and half enigma. Now your hands %are on the mysteries of the commonplace
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO SOLO, by NICANOR PARRA    Poem Source                    
First Line: Since man's life is nothing but a bit of action at a distance
Last Line: I want my soul to find its proper body sand
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO TEACHER, by LUISA IGLORIA    Poem Source                    
First Line: Who can tell how many fingers
Last Line: And how it cannot entirely %diminish love
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO TUNER, UNTUNE ME THAT TUNE, by OGDEN NASH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I regret that before people can be reformed they have to be sinners,
Last Line: And each little one playing 'chopsticks' twenty-four hours a day in all the nurseries of all his har
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO TUNING, by MARIANNE BORUCH    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Of course, I left it, the tuning hammer
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PIANO [ODA AL PIANO], by NEFTALI RICARDO REYES BASUALTO    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Midway in the concert
Alternate Author Name(s): Neruda, Pablo
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PLATO, A MUSICIAN, by LEONTIUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: When orpheus died, some muse the lyre still fingered
Last Line: Some remnant of the ancient melodies.
Alternate Author Name(s): Leontios
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


PLAYER PIANO, by RANDALL JARRELL    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I ate pancakes one night in a pancake house
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Nostalgia; Pianos


PLAYER PIANO, by WYATT PRUNTY    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Learning from a player piano
Last Line: Thought made mechanical, not grand but upright
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PLAYER PIANO, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My stick fingers, click with a snicker
Last Line: Misstrums me, or tries a new tune
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PLAYER PIANO, by JOHN UPDIKE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My stick fingers, click with a snicker
Last Line: Misstrums me, or tries a new tune
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PLAYING HIROSHIMA, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Did you know the ones with colds wear surgical masks
Last Line: Softly...Pianissimo? %they do
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


PLAYING SOMEONE ELSE'S PIANO, by KAREN SWENSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Touching you / slipping fingers between your thighs
Last Line: Which only the other can hear.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos; Sex


PLAYING THE ZITHER BY MOONLIGHT, by YANG WENLI    Poem Source                    
First Line: A small inner chamber, bright moon in the night
Last Line: In the lofty sky, distant geese are crossing
Subject(s): Zithers (musical Instruments)


POWER OF THE RIGHT FOOT, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
Last Line: And smiles, %and lifts her veil
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


POWWOW, by R. ALICE FIKSDAL    Poem Text                    
First Line: Tum, tum, tum, tum! Tum, tum, tum!
Last Line: Four ragged chieftains beating on a drum!
Subject(s): Bells; Musical Instruments; Native Americans; Singing & Singers; Indians Of America; American Indians; Indians Of South America; Songs


PRELUDE, by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: By sunny market-place and street
Last Line: I left my all to follow the drum.
Alternate Author Name(s): Stevenson, Robert Lewis Balfour
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments; War


PREPARATION, by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hast thou a cunning instrument of play
Last Line: And all the room with heavenly music float.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, T. E.
Subject(s): Heaven; Musical Instruments; Paradise


PRODIGY, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: He was born with the fingerpads of the blind
Last Line: Brushing it as if by accident %with his leg, his sleeve
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


PULL DOWN/RELEASE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Here the climb really ends. Pull down
Last Line: They are not as young as you. %they know
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


QUATORZAINS: 9. TO MY LYRE, by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My lyre! Thou art the bower of my senses
Last Line: Till silence comes and smothers her pert jars.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


RAIN MUSIC, by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR.    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: On the dusty earth-drum
Last Line: Calling life anew.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Rain


RECORDERS IN ITALY, by ADRIENNE CECILE RICH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: It was amusing on that antique grass
Last Line: There were four recorders sweet upon the wind
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


RED DRUM, by GWYN MCVAY    Poem Source                    
First Line: How to strike emptiness
Last Line: Red, muscle of heart
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments


REMARKABLE FARKLE MCBRIDE, by JOHN LITHGOW    Poem Source                    
First Line: Oh, pity the prodigy, farkle mcbride
Last Line: And remarkable farkle's at last %satisfied!
Subject(s): Conductors (music); Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments


REST, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: An unpainted sky crossed by branches
Last Line: Four small red horses that gallop away
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


RITARDANDO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: For months gahagan gathered in
Last Line: And loops of bullets %and went downtown
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


ROMANCERO: BOOK 2. LAMENTATIONS: LAZARUS. 10. SOLOMON, by HEINRICH HEINE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The drums, trumps, cornets at length sink to slumber
Last Line: "but if thou'lt not love me, I wither and perish."
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Solomon (10th Century B.c.)


ROUND THE BEND, by WILL LAWSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Round the bend where the pungas grow
Last Line: And his was an easy mind.
Subject(s): Banjos; Idleness; Musical Instruments; Trucks & Trucking; Laziness; Sloth; Indolence; Teamsters; Truckers; Freight


RUMORS FROM AN AEOLIAN HARP, by HENRY DAVID THOREAU    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is a vale which none hath seen
Last Line: Their thoughts conversing with the sky.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Transcendentalism; Lyres


SASHA, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The half-played piece flies off
Last Line: Curls under a bridge. The %beginner lifts his hands
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


SECOND FIDDLE, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Just behind the first fiddle he bends
Last Line: And the fiddle called second, be first.
Subject(s): Fiddles; Happiness; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Soul; Joy; Delight


SECRET LIFE OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, by CAROLYN D. WRIGHT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Between midnight and reno
Last Line: If you miss us at home %we'll be on our way to the reckoning
Alternate Author Name(s): Wright, C. D.
Subject(s): Bands; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments


SENRYU (91), by UNKNOWN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Now she's got a baby
Last Line: Gives no satisfaction
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


SEVERAL MEASURES FOR THE LITTLE LOST, by NORMAN DUBIE    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The lesson begins in a heated room
Last Line: After all of the lamb has left the bone it warned.
Subject(s): History; Hunger; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Teaching & Teachers; Historians; Educators; Professors


SIGHT-READING, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Halfway through you realize
Last Line: Your sudden hands first told you %you were lost
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


SILENT PIANO, by PETER DAVISON    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, how it sounded fifty years ago!
Last Line: Shrunk into furniture. The making of music %dwindles into harmonics from the past
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


SOLO FOR TAM TAM, by DAVID KELLER    Poem Source                    
First Line: 1. Not tom-tom misspelled, but tam tam
Last Line: High-hat, timpani, new hope, tam tam
Subject(s): Bands; Drums; Love; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Singing And Singers


SOME MEMBERS OF THE CHORD FAMILY: DIMINISHED, THEIR DAUGHTER, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Amid the dulles rush she perches
Last Line: No chance she will miss her plane
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


SOME MEMBERS OF THE CHORD FAMILY: MINOR, HIS WIFE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: They met at fort meade the summer
Last Line: In all their married life, he never %quite touched her
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


SOME MEMBERS OF THE CHORD FAMILY: THE MAJOR, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Every morning he waxes his moustache
Last Line: Felt the need to change. Looking %into the mirror, he begins it now
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


SONG (SOMEDAY MY PRINCE WILL COME), by NICK MOUDRY    Poem Source                    
First Line: Sometime after the last phrase was uttered
Last Line: Till the girls undressed & they danced
Subject(s): Courts And Courtiers; Musical Instruments; Singing And Singers; Trumpets


SONG OF LITTLE HINES, by RUTH SUCKOW    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Little hines, who mends watches
Last Line: With the diapason sticking.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Singing & Singers


SONG OF THE GOLDEN LYRE, by JESSE WALKER    Poem Text                    
First Line: In those ages bright but olden
Last Line: Swelling, ringing evermore!
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


SONG TO A SCOTCH AIR, by REGINALD HEBER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I love the harp with silver sound
Last Line: Who wak'st the northern lay so well.
Subject(s): Bugles; Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


SONGS OF THE SEA CHILDREN: 5, by BLISS CARMAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the door of the house of life
Last Line: Aeolian for thee.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


SONNET (ON HEARING THE BAG-PIPE), by JOHN KEATS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Of late two dainties were before me plac'd
Last Line: Mum chance art thou with both oblig'd to part.
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Musical Instruments


SOTTO VOCE, by HAROLD MARTIN BOWMAN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Sing we of the summer
Last Line: Thou, my mandolin.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


SOUND DOCTRINE, by HEINRICH HEINE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Quick, beat the drum, and be not afraid
Last Line: And also because I drum not amiss.
Subject(s): Drums; Kisses; Musical Instruments; Sleep; Youth


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: FIDDLER JONES, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The earth keeps some vibration going
Last Line: And not a single regret.
Variant Title(s): Fiddler Jones
Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Old Age


SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: JOSEPH DIXON, by EDGAR LEE MASTERS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Who carved this shattered harp on my stone?
Last Line: And use me again if I am worthy to use.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Lyres


ST. CECILIA AT A REED ORGAN BY ORAZIO GENTILESCHI & GIOVANNI LANFRANCO, by STEPHEN BURT    Poem Source                    
First Line: Her tutelary angel has arrived
Last Line: And rises to its memorized demands
Subject(s): Churches; Organs (musical Instruments)


STACCATO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The woodpecker drums
Last Line: At his bald beak %his head of stopped fire
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


STANZAS ON FINDING THE KEY OF AN OLD PIANO, by E. JUSTINE BAYARD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Unlock, unlock the shrines of memory
Last Line: The portal spirit of the gates of song.
Alternate Author Name(s): Cutting, E. Justine
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


STANZAS WRITTEN UNDER AEOLUS'S HARP, by AMELIA OPIE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Come, ye whose hearts the tyrant sorrows wound
Last Line: And make my plaintive lays enchant like thine.
Alternate Author Name(s): Alderson, Amelia
Subject(s): Harps; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Lyres


STRING QUARTET, by BABETTE DEUTSCH    Poem Source         Poet Analysis            
First Line: Who have no heaven come
Alternate Author Name(s): Yarmolinsky, Avrahm, Mrs.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


SYMPHONY: FIRST MOVEMENT, by JOHN HALL WHEELOCK    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Faintly at first, and low,
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments


TAP, by BRENDAN KENNELLY    Poem Source                    
First Line: The man beating the drum learned rhythm
Last Line: Makes tribal dancing other than you might think
Subject(s): Drums; Insanity; Musical Instruments; Race Awareness


TASK OF THE ACCOMPANIST, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Dear friends start up the drive
Last Line: And the tiled baths, with their %blue and inlaid eyes of boys
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


TECHNIQUE, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Rock your hand
Last Line: But you will not, %having chosen to go by water
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


TEN MINUTES, A WEATHER FOR PIANO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: The suddenly heavy sun
Last Line: Through his shirt his shoulderblades %yearn, where his father pinched for wings
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


TENDENCY TO COMPLAIN, by JUANITA BROWN TOBIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: An itinerant piano tuner
Last Line: Somebody would find fault with it.'
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


TENDER BUTTONS: A PIANO, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If the speed is open, if the color is careless, if the selection of a strong
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


TENDER BUTTONS: A PIANO, by GERTRUDE STEIN    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: If the speed is open, if the color is careless, if the selection of a strong
Last Line: #name?
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


THAT HARP YOU PLAY SO WELL, by MARIANNE MOORE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O david, if I had / your power, I should be glad
Subject(s): David (d. 962 B.c.); Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THAT HARP YOU PLAY SO WELL, by MARIANNE MOORE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O david, if I had %your power, I should be glad
Last Line: Grief's lustiness %must cure the harp's distress
Subject(s): David (d. 962 B.c.); Harps; Musical Instruments


THE AEOLIAN HARP, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My pensive sara! Thy soft cheek reclined
Last Line: Peace, and this cot, and thee, heart-honoured maid!
Variant Title(s): Lines Composed At Clevedon;the Eolian Harp;effusion: 35, Composed At Clevedo, Somersetshire
Subject(s): Harps; Love - Marital; Musical Instruments; Lyres; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love


THE AEOLIAN HARP, by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh! Take that airy harp from out the gale
Last Line: The soul can thrill with no diviner feeling.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE AEOLIAN HARP; AT THE SURF INN, by HERMAN MELVILLE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: List the harp in window wailing
Last Line: Thoughts that tongue can tell no word of!
Subject(s): Disasters; Harps; Musical Instruments; Shipwrecks; Lyres


THE BANJO FIEND, by WILLARD GROSVENOR BLEYER    Poem Text                    
First Line: There is a fellow across the way
Last Line: With his plunk, plunk, plunkety, plunk, plunk.
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


THE BANJO OF THE PAST, by HOWARD WEEDEN    Poem Text                    
First Line: You ax about dat music made
Last Line: De banjo disappears!
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


THE BANJO PLAYER, by FENTON JOHNSON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There is music in me, the music of a peasant people
Last Line: What is a troubadour?
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


THE BARD OF BREFFNEY, by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Withered with years and broken by time's play
Last Line: Upon the field where brave o'ruark did die.
Alternate Author Name(s): Sigerson, Dora; Shorter, Mrs. Clement
Subject(s): Bards; Death; Harps; Musical Instruments; Dead, The; Lyres


THE BARD OF LOVE, by ANACREON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I wish to tune my quivering lyre
Last Line: In songs of bliss and sighs of flame.
Alternate Author Name(s): Anakreon; Anacreontea
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


THE BOMB AND THE ORGAN; AN INCIDENT OF SEIGE OF STRASBURG, by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the great church the holy organ stood
Last Line: As though it were a fortress of the foe!
Subject(s): Franco-prussian War (1870-1871); Organs (musical Instruments)


THE BROKEN BANJO, by WARREN FENNO GREGORY    Poem Text                    
First Line: Voiceless lies the broken banjo
Last Line: Past recalling, e'en as thou!
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


THE BROKEN DRUM, by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is sorrow in the household
Last Line: Are as empty as his drum.
Alternate Author Name(s): Guest, Eddie
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments


THE COUNTRY WEDDING (A FIDDLER'S STORY), by THOMAS HARDY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Little fogs were gathered in every hollow
Last Line: And carried 'em there in an after year.
Subject(s): Fiddles; Marriage; Musical Instruments; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


THE COYOTE AND THE LOCUST, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "locust, locust, playing a flute"
Last Line: Playing a flute!
Subject(s): Coyotes;flutes;locusts;musical Instruments;native Americans - Reservations


THE DRUM, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O the drum!
Last Line: Thy palpitating syllables roll in upon the ear!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Drums; Freedom; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; War; Liberty


THE DRUM, by JOHN SCOTT (1730-1783)    Poem Text                    
First Line: I hate that drum's discordant sound
Last Line: To fill the catalogue of human woes.
Variant Title(s): Ode On Hearing The Drum;report On The Foregoing
Subject(s): Antiwar Movements; Drums; Musical Instruments; Napoleon I (1769-1821); War; Anti-war Protests


THE DRUM, by EDWARD FORRESTER SUTTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: There's a rhythm down the road where the elms overarch
Last Line: "of the drum!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Sutton, E.
Subject(s): Christianity; Drums; Musical Instruments; Vengeance; War


THE DRUM-MAJOR, by HEINRICH HEINE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The old drum-major it is that we see
Last Line: The old man is your father!
Subject(s): Drums; Grief; Musical Instruments; Sin; Sorrow; Sadness


THE DRUM: THE NARRATIVE OF THE DEMON OF TEDWORTH, by EDITH SITWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In his tall senatorial
Last Line: Where the drum rolls up the stair, nor tarries.
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments; Winter; Witchcraft & Witches


THE DRUMMER, by EDMOND ROSTAND    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Early before the unseen cricket-choir
Last Line: That mocking pipe, my spirit, whistles still!
Subject(s): Love; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments


THE DRUMMER BOY, by ANONYMOUS    Poem Text                    
First Line: "captain gray, the men were sayin'"
Last Line: Unbroken by the night's tattoo
Subject(s): Boys;drums;musical Instruments;soldiers


THE DRUMS, by BERTON BRALEY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tumpy-tum-tump; tumpy-tum-tump
Last Line: Way for the drums—make room!
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments


THE EBONY CHICKERING, by DORIANNE LAUX    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: My mother cooked with lard she kept
Last Line: As he bowed, and she slipped him the check.
Subject(s): Cooking & Cooks; Mothers & Daughters; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Cookery


THE EXILE'S HARP, by ALFRED TENNYSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I will hang thee, my harp, by the side of the fountain
Last Line: For ever farewell!
Alternate Author Name(s): Tennyson, Lord Alfred; Tennyson, 1st Baron; Tennyson Of Aldworth And Farringford, Baron
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE FAIRY FIDDLER, by NORA (CHESSON) HOPPER    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis I go fiddling, fiddling
Last Line: And the horse that draws the plough
Subject(s): Fairies; Fiddles; Musical Instruments; Elves


THE FIDDLER OF BERLIN, by HERMANN HAGEDORN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Night, and a black pall over the city
Last Line: And broken women, and ghosts.
Subject(s): Death; Fiddles; Loss; Military; Mourning; Musical Instruments; Soldiers; Truth; War; Dead, The; Bereavement


THE FINDING OF THE LYRE, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There lay upon the ocean's shore
Last Line: In thee what songs should waken!
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


THE FIRST VIOLINIST, by ELEANOR G. R. YOUNG    Poem Text                    
First Line: We passed him
Last Line: And shut us in!
Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Violins


THE FLOWER OF THE RUINS, by GEORGE MEREDITH    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Take thy lute and sing
Last Line: With the flood!
Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments


THE FLUTE, by ANDRE MARIE CHENIER    Poem Text                    
First Line: When I remember I am nigh to weep
Last Line: To close the gaps upon the sounding reed.
Subject(s): Flutes; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments


THE GHOSTS LISTEN TO ORPHEUS SING, by GREGORY ORR    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: He stood before the throne
Last Line: The deep bursting emptiness of song.
Variant Title(s): Betrayals/hades, Eurydice, Orpheus
Subject(s): Eurydice (nymph); Harps; Loss; Musical Instruments; Mythology - Classical; Orpheus; Lyres


THE GREEN PIANO, by ROBERT PINSKY    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Aeolian. Gratis. Great thunderer, half-ton infant of miracles
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Neighbors; Pianos


THE HARP, by RICHARD DEHMEL    Poem Text                    
First Line: Unquiet stand the pines in lofty rows
Last Line: O world!
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE HARP, by RALPH WALDO EMERSON    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: One musician is sure
Last Line: Wherein was dropped the mortal spoil.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE HARP, by JAKOB JOHANNESSON SMARI    Poem Text                    
First Line: Sometimes a still small voice of music steals
Last Line: The ice-blue star-flames roll.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE HARP OF THE MINSTREL, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The harp of the minstrel has never a tone
Last Line: Can not waken the echoes that breathe it aright.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Grief; Harps; Light; Minstrels; Musical Instruments; Sorrow; Sadness; Lyres


THE HARP OF WALES; INSCRIBED RUTHIN WELSH LITERARY SOCIETY, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Harp of the mountain-land! Sound forth again
Last Line: Thou noble harp! Thy tones are not to cease!
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Wales; Lyres; Welshmen; Welshwomen


THE HARP: AN ODE, by BAYARD TAYLOR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When bleak winds throught the northern pines
Last Line: And own thy latest thy sublimes song!
Alternate Author Name(s): Taylor, James Bayard
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE HARPER, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Like a drift of faded blossoms
Last Line: And god's companionship!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Harps; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Rain; Lyres


THE HARPER OF CHAO, by PO CHU-YI    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The singers have hushed their notes of clear song
Last Line: Day by day is covered deeper with dust.
Alternate Author Name(s): Bai Juyi; Bo Juyi; Po Chu-i; Lo T'ien; Jyu-yi
Subject(s): China - Tang Dynasty (618-905); Musical Instruments; Singing & Singers


THE HARPIST OF UR, by ELDOROUS DAYTON    Poem Text                    
First Line: Unravished by the centuries, he kneels
Last Line: A sweeter music tingling from his hand.
Subject(s): Harps; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE HARPS OF DAVID, by HENRI CAZALIS    Poem Text                    
First Line: Spacious, splendid and pacific, the vast night unrolled before us
Last Line: Were spanned by the vast soul of god outspread above us both.
Alternate Author Name(s): Lahor, Jean
Subject(s): Harps; Love; Musical Instruments; Night; Lyres; Bedtime


THE KALLYOPE YELL, by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Proud me / eternally
Last Line: Fizz . . . .
Alternate Author Name(s): Lindsay, Vachel
Subject(s): Calliopes (musical Instruments)


THE KEY-BOARD, by WILLIAM WATSON    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Five and thirty black slaves
Last Line: By her finger-tips.
Alternate Author Name(s): Watson, John William
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


THE LAST HARPER, by JOSEPH CORSON MILLER    Poem Text                    
First Line: He stood in the blood-red wash of a towering sunset
Last Line: "I will go home to sleep now -- sleep is best."
Alternate Author Name(s): Miller, J. Corson
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE LOST CHORD, by ADELAIDE ANNE PROCTER    Poem Text     Poem Explanation                 Poet's Biography
First Line: Seated one day at the organ
Last Line: I shall hear that grand amen.
Alternate Author Name(s): Berwick, Mary
Subject(s): Heaven; Memory; Music & Musicians; Organs (musical Instruments); Paradise


THE LOVER OF MUSIC TO HIS PIANOFORTE, by JAMES HENRY LEIGH HUNT    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: O friend, whom glad or grave we seek
Last Line: Thine answer, kind.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hunt, Leigh
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


THE LUTE PLAYER (A WOMAN), by HAN YU    Poem Text                    
First Line: Tell-tale your song -- as tell-tale as your eyes
Last Line: Like water flooding from a broken vase.
Alternate Author Name(s): T'su-chih
Subject(s): Lutes; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Women


THE LYRE, by CHARLES SWAIN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A sound came floating by
Last Line: "the lyre -- the lyre -- the soul-exalting lyre!"
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE MARCHING FEET, by MAXWELL STRUTHERS BURT    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Drums, drums, drums to the fore!
Last Line: The far-off calling of a drum!
Alternate Author Name(s): Burt, Struthers
Subject(s): Army Life; Drums; Marching & Marches; Musical Instruments; Drills & Minor Tactics


THE MASTER-PLAYER, by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: An old, worn harp that had been played
Last Line: And brought forth music sweet and strong.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Religion; Lyres; Theology


THE MESSAGE OF AN AEOLIAN HARP, by FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Goodbye, my mother
Last Line: "the breath of heaven, the spirit of our god."
Subject(s): Christianity; Harps; Love; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE MINSTREL TO HIS HARP, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: When youthful transport led the hours
Last Line: When all my way was bright with flowers.
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Singing & Singers; Lyres; Songs


THE MUFFLED DRUMS, by PERCY MACKAYE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: For brothers laid in blood
Last Line: And we chant, chant the world redeemed by woman.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mackaye, Percy Wallace
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments; Pacifism; Sex Role; Women; Peace Movements


THE NEW CHURCH ORGAN, by WILLIAM MCKENDREE CARLETON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They've got a bran new organ, sue
Last Line: A squealin' over me!
Alternate Author Name(s): Carleton, Will
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments); Women


THE OLD HAND-ORGAN, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Harsh-voiced it was, and shrill
Last Line: By shamefaced pennies as he played.
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Organs (musical Instruments)


THE OLD HARP, by PO CHU-YI    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Of cord and cassia-wood is the harp compounded
Last Line: Because of the ch'iang flute and the ch'in flageolet.
Alternate Author Name(s): Bai Juyi; Bo Juyi; Po Chu-i; Lo T'ien; Jyu-yi
Subject(s): China - Tang Dynasty (618-905); Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE OPENING OF THE PIANO, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: In the little southern parlor of the house you may have seen
Last Line: "open it! Open it, lady! And let me see the bird!"
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


THE ORGAN (ALLEGRO), by NATHAN HASKELL DOLE    Poem Text                    
First Line: Gift of the faithful, the eloquent organ
Last Line: All these mellifluous voices you bring with you!
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


THE ORGAN-BLOWER, by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Devoutest of my sunday friends
Last Line: Will play the tune as he shall please.
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


THE ORGANIST, by KATHARINE LEE BATES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Slowly I circle the dim, dizzy stair
Last Line: Bidding it rise.
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


THE ORGANIST, by GEORGE W. STEVENS    Poem Text                    
First Line: I wonder how the organist
Last Line: In town on sabbath day.
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


THE ORGANIST IN HEAVEN (SAMUEL SEBASTIAN WESLEY), by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When wesley died, the angelic orders
Last Line: And moved the balanced stars.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brown, T. E.
Subject(s): Death; Organs (musical Instruments); Wesley, Samuel Sebastian (1810-1876); Dead, The


THE ORIGIN OF THE HARP, by THOMAS MOORE    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis believed that this harp, which I wake now for thee
Last Line: To speak love when I'm near thee, and grief when away!
Alternate Author Name(s): Little, Thomas
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE PIANO, by ARCHIBALD LAMPMAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Low brooding cadences that dream and cry
Last Line: With eyes unblanched, time and eternity.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


THE PIANO AT RED'S, by CHARLES BADGER CLARK JR.    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Twas a hole called red's saloon
Last Line: Back in red's saloon!
Alternate Author Name(s): Clark, Badger
Subject(s): Bars & Bartenders; Cowboys; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Pubs; Taverns; Saloons


THE PIANO-ORGAN, by AMY LEVY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My student lamp is lighted
Last Line: The tune twirls on and on.
Subject(s): Organs (musical Instruments)


THE PIPES OF THE NORTH, by EDWARD FORRESTER SUTTON    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Do ye hear 'em sternly soundin' through the noises of the street
Last Line: Ye're sure the wings of gaelic souls as far as blood is true!
Alternate Author Name(s): Sutton, E.
Subject(s): Bagpipes; Ireland; Musical Instruments; Patriotism; Scotland; War; Irish


THE PLAYER PIANO, by RANDALL JARRELL    Poem Text     Poem Explanation     Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I ate pancakes one night in a pancake house
Last Line: Plays itself out a half-inch from my fingers
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Nostalgia; Pianos


THE PLAYER PIANO, by WYATT PRUNTY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Learning from a player piano
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


THE PLAYERS ASK FOR A BLESSING ON THE PSALTERIES AND ON THEMSELVES, by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Hurry to bless the hands that play
Last Line: But bless our hands that ebb away.
Alternate Author Name(s): Yeats, W. B.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


THE RED PIANO, by ANSELM HOLLO    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A red piano / he says
Last Line: Let us think more musical thoughts.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


THE REED, by AUDREY ALEXANDRA BROWN    Poem Text                    
First Line: This is the song of the reed
Last Line: And all the world shall hearken to his singing!
Subject(s): Flutes; Musical Instruments; Nature; Reeds


THE SCARED HARP, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: How shall the harp of poesy regain
Last Line: Give the long-buried tone back to immortal words
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THE SONG OF THE BANJO, by RUDYARD KIPLING    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: You couldn't pack a broadwood half a mile
Last Line: Yea, from delos up to limerick and back!
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


THE SOUND OF THE HORN, by ALFRED DE VIGNY    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I love the sound of the horn in the deep, dim woodland
Last Line: The shades of the noble roland is still forlorn!
Subject(s): Horns (musical Instruments); Nature; Sound


THE SYLVAN MUSICIAN, by CYRIL A. LINGEMANN    Poem Text                    
First Line: High in his forest organ loft
Last Line: Sweet snatches of quaint woodland lore.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Organs (musical Instruments); Spring


THE TROUBADOUR: THE HARPER'S STORY, by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: My pretty ladies, mid this christmas cheer
Last Line: As you shall hear who listen to my tale.
Alternate Author Name(s): Sigerson, Dora; Shorter, Mrs. Clement
Subject(s): Harps; Love; Man-woman Relationships; Musical Instruments; Story-telling; Lyres; Male-female Relations


THE TROUBADOUR: THE HARPER'S STORY: 2. CRUEL END OF THE LOVERS' TALE, by DORA SIGERSON SHORTER    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How quick breeds scandal. In some danksome place
Last Line: His weeping lady, kneeling there.
Alternate Author Name(s): Sigerson, Dora; Shorter, Mrs. Clement
Subject(s): Grief; Harps; Love; Musical Instruments; Passion; Story-telling; Sorrow; Sadness; Lyres


THE UNSTRUNG LYRE, by ERIC PANKEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: With what can I string this antique lyre
Subject(s): Life; Musical Instruments


THE VIOLIN-PLAYER, by VICTOR GUSTAVE PLARR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: You who love music and comprehend
Last Line: Which are the beginning and end of art.
Subject(s): Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Violins; Vision


THE VOICE AND THE VIOLL, by ROBERT HERRICK    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Rare is the voice it selfe; but when we sing
Last Line: To'th lute or violl, then 'tis ravishing.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


THE VOICE OF THE BANJO, by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In a small and lonely cabin out of noisy traffic's way
Last Line: "-- in the end."
Subject(s): Banjos; Musical Instruments


THE WIND HARP, by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I treasure in secret some long, fine hair
Last Line: Down the long steps that lead to silence and died.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


THERE WAS AN OLD PERSON OF CHEAM, by EDWARD LEAR    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
Last Line: In the beautiful meadows of cheam!
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments; Old Age


THIS INCONSTANCY IS SUCH, by CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON MORLEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Chestnut street is dark and gloomy
Last Line: There on the pavement.
Alternate Author Name(s): Hall, Galway
Subject(s): Life; Musical Instruments


TIN-WHISTLE PLAYER, by PADRAIC COLUM    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Tis long since, long since, since I heard
Last Line: That long face, in a place of graves %with nettles overgrown
Subject(s): Musical Instruments


TO A LADY PLAYING THE HARP, by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Thy tones are silver melted into sound
Last Line: Till perfect love, the love of loving crowns.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


TO A PIANISTE, by JAMES THOMSON (1700-1748)    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: I saw thee once, I see thee now
Last Line: His glorious unheard harmony.
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


TO AN AEOLIAN HARP, by SARA TEASDALE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The winds have grown articulate in thee
Last Line: Thy strings no rest from weariless wild hands.
Alternate Author Name(s): Filsinger, Ernest B., Mrs.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


TO MR. EDWARDS, THE HARPER OF CONWAY, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Minstrel! Whose gifted hand can bring
Last Line: And cambria's harp lie hushed in sleep.
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


TO MY AEOLIAN HARP, AS IT WAS PLAYING ON A COLD, STORMY DAY, by ELIZA LEE CABOT FOLLEN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Say, was it, my harp, the invisible wing
Last Line: It remembers, in silence, the storm is from heaven.
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


TO MY LYRE, by JOSEPH MASSEL    Poem Text                    
First Line: Wonderful is my love
Last Line: And the sweets of the world to be.
Subject(s): Harps; Jews; Love; Musical Instruments; Lyres; Judaism


TO MY LYRE, by QUINTUS HORATIUS FLACCUS    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hast thou upon the idle branches hung
Last Line: Thou gentle lyre of mine?
Alternate Author Name(s): Horace
Subject(s): Harps; Musical Instruments; Lyres


TO PLAY PIANISSIMO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Does not mean silence
Last Line: And to lay them across her lap like a shawl
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


TO THE MINSTREL GIRL, by THOMAS AUGUSTINE DALY    Poem Text                    
First Line: Th' critic's heel is on ye, sure
Last Line: Sure, bless your heart! Ye didn't need, carolyn, my carolin'.
Alternate Author Name(s): Daly, T. A.
Subject(s): Critics & Criticism; Girls; Minstrels; Musical Instruments; Wells, Carolyn (1862-1942)


TO THE OLD GUITAR, by JORGE GONZALEZ BASTIAS    Poem Source                    
First Line: If war-cries your songs hold, and blood of the martyrs
Last Line: This, loving and mournful, belongs to us here!
Subject(s): Guitars; Musical Instruments


TOURS, by CAROLYN D. WRIGHT    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A girl on the stairs listens to her father
Last Line: She presses stays down, makes no sound, %someone putting their tongue where their tooth had been
Alternate Author Name(s): Wright, C. D.
Subject(s): Children; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Parents; Pianos; Violence


TRAGEDIES: 9, by THEOPHILE JULIUS HENRY MARZIALS    Poem Text                    
First Line: She was only a woman, famish'd for loving
Last Line: Grimacing and fing'ring his fiddle-strings.
Alternate Author Name(s): Marzials, Theo; Marzials, Theophile Jules Henri
Subject(s): Hearts; Musical Instruments; Women


TRUE LEGATO, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Lifting one foot, the other falls
Last Line: Lost, she rocks the tattered score. %she does not know she sings
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


TRUMPETS, by JOHN FREEMAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Drums, you are too tame
Last Line: The hound's deep, hoarse, harsh cry.
Subject(s): Flutes; Musical Instruments; Trumpets


TWO VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY THELONIOUS MONK: 1. BLUE MONK, by LAWSON FUSAO INADA    Poem Source                    
First Line: Solid, as the man himself would say
Last Line: With the true, blue beauty of his song: 'blue monk'!
Subject(s): Monk, Thelonious (1917-1982); Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Poetry And Poets; Singing And Singers


USES OF THE METRONOME, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Before you get sea legs
Last Line: The white sail slaps sky, %and you fly, you fly
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


VALUES, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Half notes are youngsters who do not know
Last Line: Sink to the bottom, how across the measure lines %they sing like stones
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


VARIATIONS FOR TWO PIANOS, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is no music now in all arkansas
Subject(s): Arkansas; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


VARIATIONS FOR TWO PIANOS, by DONALD JUSTICE    Poem Source         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: There is no music now in all arkansas
Last Line: Higgins is gone, taking both his pianos %there is no music now in all arkansas
Subject(s): Arkansas; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos


VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY FRANCIS KILVERT, by ROLFE HUMPHRIES    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The welsh harp has no silver string
Subject(s): Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments


VILLANELLE; TO MR. JOSEPH BOULMIER, by ANDREW LANG    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: Villanelle, why art thou mute?
Last Line: Hath the master lost his lute?
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Singing & Singers; Spring; Villanelle (as Poetic Form); Songs


VISITING SUNDAY: CONVENT NOVITIATE, by MADELINE DEFREES    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: The parlor doors shall be glazed, the custom book
Last Line: To write the lyric.
Alternate Author Name(s): Mary Gilbert, Sister; De Frees, Madeline
Subject(s): Convents; Cousins; Musical Instruments; Pianos


VOODOO, by ANNICE CALLAND    Poem Text                    
First Line: Ho, the pan-pipes call to bassin bleu
Last Line: And ever the woman sang.
Subject(s): Drums; Musical Instruments; Rites & Ceremonies; Voodooism; Bizango; Obeah; Gaga


VOORREDE, by ARTHUR GUITERMAN    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Steendam the poet (whom all men know)
Last Line: "rollicking lays of the good old times!"
Subject(s): Fiddles; Musical Instruments; Poetry & Poets; Rhyme


WAR BALLAD, by ANDREI VOZNESENSKY    Poem Source                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The piano has crawled into the quarry. Hauled
Last Line: I'll be a song for russia, I'll be %an etude, warmth and bread for everybody
Alternate Author Name(s): Voznesenskii, Andrei
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos; Religion; War


WARBLER'S SONG IN THE DUSK, by SAM HAMILL    Poem Source                    
First Line: I crossed an ocean
Last Line: And the soul sings out again
Subject(s): Japan; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Singing And Singers


WHAT BRINGS YOU TEARS?, by PAMELA GEMIN    Poem Source                    
First Line: Today on the road that brought me here
Last Line: So what brings you here today? %what brings these tears?
Subject(s): Grief; Music And Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Tears


WHAT THEN OF US, WE HUMBLE FIDDLING FOLK, by CLEMENT WOOD    Poem Text                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What then of us, we humble fiddling folk
Last Line: Till the last mind forget its final dreaming.
Subject(s): Beauty; Fiddles; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments


WHEN DE FOLKS IS GONE, by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY    Poem Text         Poet Analysis             Poet's Biography
First Line: What dat scratchin' at de kitchen do'?
Last Line: God bress de lo'd! Hit's de folks got back!
Alternate Author Name(s): Johnson Of Boone, Benj. F.
Subject(s): Fiddles; Musical Instruments


WHERE MUSIC COMES FROM, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: One performer shakes it from
Last Line: Not rise. The houselights come %on, which burn the skin like sun
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


WHY PERFORMERS WEAR BLACK, by LOLA HASKINS    Poem Source                    
First Line: Because there is no black flower
Last Line: A whisper muffled in a woman's %hair, on the far dark shore
Subject(s): Musical Instruments; Pianos


WITH SILVER STRINGS, by MARGARETTE BALL DICKSON    Poem Text                    
First Line: With silver strings my harp is strung
Last Line: On silver wings!
Subject(s): Happiness; Harps; Musical Instruments; Singing & Singers; Joy; Delight; Lyres; Songs


YOUR MUSIC, by PAULINE OGDEN    Poem Text                    
First Line: Your slender fingers drift across the keys
Last Line: Feeling that you are playing just for me.
Subject(s): Dreams; Music & Musicians; Musical Instruments; Pianos; Nightmares


ZIN! ZIN! ZIN! A VIOLIN, by LLOYD MOSS    Poem Source                    
First Line: With mournful moan and silken tone
Last Line: Before we say a late good night
Subject(s): Counting; Musical Instruments