SILENT with listening soul I hear, Strains hushed for many a noisy year, The passionate chords which wake the tear, The sweet old love-songs dear. The dreams of youth surround me still, Thin thronging ghosts the benches fill, The old hopes glow, the old fears chill, Dead aspirations thrill. A little graver, or more gray, Though thirty years have fled away, Scarce changed, the same musicians play The self-same themes to-day. How swift Time fleets, yet here how slow, How scant the visible changes show, New hopes inspire, new empires grow, Yet still the master's bow With magic wakes the slumbering string; Glad tears, the slow bass gains to bring; The silvery, swift sonatas ring, High soaring voices sing. 'Tis I am changed, yet ah! not cold, Oh, precious tones and strains of old, Still round Life's warring discords fold Linked harmonies of gold. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 32 by JAMES JOYCE THE MOUNTAIN WHIPPOORWILL (A GEORGIA ROMANCE) by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET ALMANACH DU PRINTEMPS VIVAROIS by HAYDEN CARRUTH THE STORY OF THE END OF THE STORY by JAMES GALVIN |