But where I begin my own narration

Is a little after I took my station

To breathe the fresh air from the balcony,

And, having in those days a falcon eye,

To follow the hunt through the open country,

From where the bushes thinlier crested

The hillocks, to a plain where's not one tree.

When, in a moment, my ear was arrested

By—was it singing, or was it saying,

Or a strange musical instrument playing