For every one is as a link;
And I enchain them as I think;
Till present, and remembered bliss,
And better, worlds on after this,
I have—led on from each to each
Athwart the limitless abyss—
In some surpassing sphere I reach.
I draw a veil across my face
Before I come back to the place
And dull obscurity of these;
I hide my face, and no man sees;
I learn to smile a lighter smile,
And change, and look just what they please.
It is but for a little while.
I go with them; and in their sight
I would not scorn their little light,
Nor mock the things they hold divine;
But when I kneel before the shrine
Of some base deity of theirs,
I pray all inwardly to mine,
And send my soul up with my prayers:
For I—ah, to myself I say—
I have a heaven though far away;
And there my Love went long ago,
With all the things my heart loves so;
And there my songs fly, every one:
And I shall find them there I know
When this sad pilgrimage is done.
A NEGLECTED HARP.
O HUSHED and shrouded room!
O silence that enchains!
O me—of many melodies
The cold and voiceless tomb;
What sweet impassioned strains,
What fair unearthly things,
Sealed up in frozen cadences,
Are aching in my strings!
Each time the setting sun,
At eve when all is still,
Doth reach a pale faint finger in
To touch them one by one;
O what an inward thrill
Of music makes them swell!
The prisoned song-pulse beats within
And almost breaks the spell.
Each time the ghostly moon
Among the shadows gleams,
And leads them in a mournful dance
To some mysterious tune;
O then, indeed, it seems
Strange muffled tones repeat
The wail within me, and perchance
The measure of the feet.
But often when the ring
Of some sweet voice is near,
Or past me the light garments brush
Soft as a spirit’s wing,—
O, more than I can bear,
I feel, intense, the throb
Of some rich inward music gush
That comes out in a sob.
For am I not—alas,
The quick days come and go—
A weak and songless instrument
Through which the song-breaths pass?
I would a heart might know,
I would a hand might free
These wondrous melodies up-pent
And languishing in me.