Music. [A Nocturne.]

The soul of love is harmony; as such     All melodies, that with wide pinions beat     Elastic bars, which mew it in the flesh,     Till 'twould away to kiss their throats and cling,     Are kindred to the soul, and while they sway,     Lords of its action molding all at will.     Ah! neither was I I, nor knew the clay,     For all my soul lay on full waves of song     Reverberating 'twixt the earth and moon.     O soft complaints, that haunted all the heart     With dreams of love long cherished, love dreams found     On sunset mountains gorgeous toward the West:     Kisses - soft kisses bartered 'mid pale buds     Of bursting Springs; and vows of fondest faith     Kept evermore; and eyes whose witchery     Might lure old saints down to the lowest hell     For one swift glance, - sweet, melancholy eyes     Yet full of hope and dimming o'er with tears,     Stooping and gloating in a silver mist     At Care's thin brow, and growing at his eyes.     Voices of expectation rolling on     To diapason of a mighty choir,     'Mid ever-swooning throbbings beating low,     Wove in hoarse fabric thunders - and O soul!     Wafted to caverns lost by hideous seas,     One with the tumult 'neath o'ercircling tiers     White with strange diamond spars and feathery gems.     O holy music, wailing down long aisles     To lose thyself 'neath arched welkins dashed     With moons of crystal; - dying, dying down     To passionate sobs, and then a silence vast,     Vast as thy caves, or as the human soul,     Oppressing all this being bulked in flesh     Until it strained to burst its bounds and soar.     Harp-tones! that shaped before the poisd mind     The home of Sleep far on a moonlit isle.     White Sleep, who from heaped myriad poppies weighed     With baby slumbers, and from violet beds,     Culled whiter dreams to fold against her heart     In dewy clusters sparkling wet with tears;     And on her shadowy pinions soaring high     Winged 'neath the vault into oblivion,     With all the echoes panting at pale feet     To kiss the dreams, and o'er deep, wine-dark waves,     Far, far away, lost - and a sound of stars     Streaming from burning sockets into night     About my soul, about my soul like fire.     Oh, then what agony and bitter woe,     Regret and noise of desolation vast     As when all that one loves is torn away     Forever with "farewell forevermore!"     Oh, strife and panic and the rush of winds,     Moist ashen brows with raven tresses torn     That plunged against the bursting bolts of God,     That ploughed the tempest curst with deepest night;     Ruin and heartache, moans and demon eyes,     Fierce, bestial eyes that cursed at very God;     Then blinding tears that wept for such and prayed,     Tears blistering all the soul in haunting eyes,     Eyes such as Death would fear to ponder on!     Then dolorous bell-beats, battle as for light,     Folds of oblivion, gaspings, silence, death.