With thy sweet fingers, when thou gently

sway'st

The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,

Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap

To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,

Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest

reap,

At the wood's boldness by thee blushing stand! To be so tickled, they would change their

state

And situation with those dancing chips,

O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,
Making dead wood more blest than living lips.
Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,
Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.
William Shakespeare.

HEARING MUSIC

When lovely sounds about my ears
Like winds in Eden's tree-tops rise,
And make me, though my spirit hears,
For very luxury close my eyes,
Let none but friends be round about
Who love the soothing joy like me,
That so the charm be felt throughout,
And all be harmony.

And when we reach the close divine,

Then let the hand of her I love Come with its gentle palm on mine, As soft as snow or lighting dove; And let, by stealth, that more than friend Look sweetness in my opening eyes, For only so such dreams should end, Or wake in Paradise.

Leigh Hunt.

MUSIC

Interminable undulating weeds

Cover sharp rocks along the sea's abyss; Thus buoyant music waves about the breast And lifts it up from what lies dark below. Walter Savage Landor.

MUSIC

Move on, light hands, so strongly, tenderly, Now with dropped calm and yearning undersong,

Now swift and loud, tumultuously strong, And I in darkness, sitting near to thee, Shall only hear, and feel, but shall not see,

One hour made passionately bright with dreams,

Keen glimpses of life's splendor, dashing gleams

Of what we would, and what we cannot be. Surely not painful ever, yet not glad,

Shall such hours be to me, but blindly sweet, Sharp with all yearning and all fact at strife, Dreams that shine by with unremember'd feet,

And tones that like far distance make this life

Spectral and wonderful and strangely sad.

Archibald Lampman.

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

The charms of melody, in simple airs,
By human voices sung, are always felt;
With thoughts responsive careless hearers
melt,

Of secret ills, which our frail nature bears. We listen, weep, forget. But when the throng

Of a great master's thoughts, above the reach

Of words or colors, wire and wood can teach

By laws which to the spirit-world belongWhen several parts, to tell one mood combined,

Flash meaning on us we can ne'er express, Giving to matter subtlest powers of mind, Superior joys attentive souls confess : The harmony which suns and stars obey, Blesses our earth-bound state with visions of supernal day.

Margaret Fuller Ossoli.

MUSIC

Soft as a flash of summer light,

A thrill of music sweet
Breathed somewhat in the ear of Night,

And died along the street.

Gray Night, it said, from amorous tongue, From minstrel, and from bird,

Since first thy heaven with stars was hung What carols thou hast heard!

If only we could call the ghost
Of each forgotten strain!

If all the silver-sounding host
Made melody again!

If every song whose magic made

Yon stars more deeply burn, Then fled and withered like a shade, Could like a shade return!

I who would bid the Lovely stay,
I who would bind the Fair;

Even as I plead I pass away,
And go I know not where.

Richard Garnett.

THE HARP THE MONARCH MINSTREL SWEPT

The harp the monarch minstrel swept,
The King of men, the loved of Heaven,
Which Music hallow'd while she wept

O'er tones her heart of hearts had given, Redoubled be her tears, its chords are riven! It soften'd men of iron mould,

It gave them virtues not their own;

No ear so dull, no soul so cold,

That felt not, fired not to the tone,

Till David's lyre grew mightier than his throne.