Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TRUTH IN BEAUTY (TO A GIFTED ORGANIST), by JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE Poet's Biography First Line: Soothed is my spirit when you touch the keys Last Line: Starting this broken wave above a sea of melody. Subject(s): Beauty | ||||||||
SOOTHED is my spirit when you touch the keys, And, like a cloud, my soul floats far away; My throbbing fancies throng as dreaming bees To suck the flowers that spring up when you play O, that I thus at last might sip and pass 'mid sweets away! Whence comes such rapturous pain from simple bars, Such tender-hurting, joy-bewidow'd sweet? Such pouring glorycataract of stars Bubbles of beauty bursting at my feet, Or floating into dreamland streams where Fay and Fancy meet? The rainbow gleams along that splendid arch Where from your fingers fall the quiv'ring drops. And now, sunset; and now the misty march Of timbrel-twinkling planets, o'er the tops Of organ-chords, aeolian-peaked, with star-em-blazoned stops. Above the earth, above the wheeling flight Of mute, yet clearest pealing minstrelsy One glimpse of that which made creation bright. One glimpse of first love's sun of ecstacy Then down to earth where musick'd streams purl with pebbled symphony. O, thus to livethus ever, ever live, Wedded to Art, with handmaid Hope at side, Crushing her lips with lips that dare to give The winter tempest for the summer tide For sweetest of all weddings yet is that where Art is bride. O, thus to love, forever, ever love, Changeless in beauty and star-lived in grace. To hear but the rustle of her robes above To catch the star-beams from her fountained face For dearer is Art's finger-kiss than Passion's whole embrace! O Faith, O Hopethe poet and his sky O Joy, O Deaththe bondman and the freed O Love, you, too, must bow beneath that eye Where naught of earth, or earthy, hath a breed For infant Truth a greater hero is than gray-haired Deed, Truth which comes in Beauty, as to-night Comes this sweet Truth in simple harmony Calming the quick waves of my soul's affright, And from the depths of an unsounded sea, Starting this broken wave above a sea of melody. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VARIATIONS: 14 by CONRAD AIKEN DIVINELY SUPERFLUOUS BEAUTY by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE BEAUTY OF THINGS by ROBINSON JEFFERS HOPE IS NOT FOR THE WISE by ROBINSON JEFFERS LIFE FROM THE LIFELESS by ROBINSON JEFFERS REARMAMENT by ROBINSON JEFFERS SHANE ONEILLS CAIRN by ROBINSON JEFFERS A HARVEST SONG by JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE A MEMORIAL DAY POEM FOR THE CONFEDERACY by JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE |
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