Come hither child -- who gifted thee With power to touch that string so well? How daredst thou rouse up thoughts in me Thoughts that I would -- but cannot quell? Nay chide not lady long ago I heard those notes in Ula's hall And had I known they'd waken woe I'd weep their music to recall But thus it was one festal night When I was hardly six years old I stole away from crowds and light And sought a chamber dark and cold I had no one to love me there I knew no comrade and no friend And so I went to sorrow where Heaven only heaven saw me bend Loud blew the wind 'twas sad to stay From all that splendour barred away I imaged in the lonely room A thousand forms of fearful gloom And with my wet eyes raised on high I prayed to God that I might die Suddenly in that silence drear A sound of music reached my ear And then a note I hear it yet So full of soul so deeply sweet I thought that Gabriel's self had come To take me to my father's home Three times it rose that seraph-strain Then died nor lived ever again But still the words and still the tone Swell round my heart when all alone | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A QUESTION by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS POVERTY PARTS GUDE COMPANIE by JOANNA BAILLIE THE PROPHECY OF ST. ORAN by MATHILDE BLIND MEMORIES by MINNIE MCKINNON BOGGS THE PHILOSOPHIC FLIGHT by GIORDANO BRUNO OBSERVATIONS IN THE ART OF ENGLISH POESY: 24. ELEGIAC VERSE: THE SEVENTH EPIGRAM by THOMAS CAMPION |