It was an Abyssinian maid, And on her dulcimer she played, Could I revive within me Her symphony and song, To such a deep delight 'twould win me, That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome! those caves of ice! His flashing eyes, his floating hair, Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE II. TO A LADY, WITH A GUITAR. ARIEL to Miranda: Take This slave of music, for the sake Poor Ariel sends this silent token When you die, the silent Moon Is not sadder in her cell When you live again on earth, —— - Like an unseen star of birth, Your course of love, and Ariel still Has tracked your steps and served your will. Now, in humbler, happier lot, This is all remembered not; And now, alas! the poor Sprite is From you he only dares to crave, Y The artist who this idol wrought, From which, beneath heaven's fairest star The artist wrought this loved Guitar, And taught it justly to reply, To all who question skilfully, In language gentle as thine own; The murmuring of summer seas, That seldom-heard mysterious sound Which, driven on its diurnal round, It talks according to the wit Of its companions; and no more - PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 12. DAVID PLAYING BEFORE SAUL. THEN I tuned my harp, — took off the lilies we twine round its chords Lest they snap 'neath the stress of the noontide those sunbeams like swords! And I first played the tune all our sheep know, as, one after one, So docile they come to the pen-door till folding be done. They are white and untorn by the bushes, for lo, they have fed Where the long grasses stifle the water within the stream's bed; And now one after one seeks its lodging, as star follows star Into eve and the blue far above us, so blue and so far! - Then the tune, for which quails on the cornland will each leave his mate To fly after the player; then, what makes the crickets elate Till for boldness they fight one another: and then, what has weight To set the quick jerboa a-musing outside his sand. house There are none such as he for a wonder, half bird and half mouse! God made all the creatures and gave them our love and our fear, To give sign, we and they are his children, one family here. Then I played the help-tune of our reapers, their winesong, when hand Grasps at hand, eye lights eye in good friendship, and great hearts expand And grow one in the sense of this world's life. — Then, the last song 66 When the dead man is praised on his jouney Bear, bear him along With his few thoughts shut up like dead flowerets! Are balm seeds not here To console us? The land has none left such as he on the bier. Oh, would we might keep thee, my brother!"- And then, the glad chaunt |