Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MUSIC IN DARKNESS, by RICHARD WATSON GILDER Poet's Biography First Line: At the dim end of day Last Line: "in that mysterious night." Subject(s): Music & Musicians | ||||||||
I AT the dim end of day I heard the great musician play: Saw her white hands now slow, now swiftly pass; Where gleamed the polished wood, as in a glass, The shadow hands repeating every motion. Then did I voyage forth on music's ocean, Visiting many a sad or joyful shore, Where storming breakers roar, Or singing birds made music so intense, -- So intimate of happiness or sorrow, -- I scarce could courage borrow To hear those strains; well-nigh I hurried thence To escape the intolerable weight That on my spirit fell when sobbed the music: late, too late, too late, While slow withdrew the light And, on the lyric tide, came in the night. II So grew the dark, enshrouding all the room In a melodious gloom, Her face growing viewless; line by line That swaying form did momently decline And was in darkness lost. Then white hands ghostly turned, though still they tost From tone to tone; pauseless and sure as if in perfect light; With blind, instinctive, most miraculous sight, On, on they sounded in that world of night. III Ah, dearest one! was this thy thought, as mine, As still the music stayed? "So shall the loved ones fade, -- Feature by feature, line on lovely line; For all our love, alas, From twilight into darkness shall they pass! We in that dark shall see them never more, But from our spirits they shall not be banished, -- For on and on shall the sweet music pour That was the soul of them, the loved, the vanished; And we, who listen, shall not lose them quite In that mysterious night." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINER NOTES TO AN IMAGINARY PLAYLIST by TERRANCE HAYES VARIATIONS: 13 by CONRAD AIKEN BELIEVE, BELIEVE by BOB KAUFMAN ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN MUSIC by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES THE POWER OF MUSIC by CHARLOTTE FISKE BATES |
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