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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


TO A LADY PLAYING ON THE CITHERN by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

Poet Analysis

First Line: SO DREAMY-SOFT THE NOTES, SO FAR AWAY
Last Line: OR MUSIC IS IT SUCH ENCHANTMENT SINGS?
Subject(s): CITHERN (MUSICAL INSTRUMENT);

SO dreamy-soft the notes, so far away
They seem to fall, the horns of Oberon
Blow their faint Hunt's-up from the good-time gone;
Or, on a morning of long-withered May,
Larks tinkle unseen o'er Claudian arches gray,
That Romeward crawl from Dreamland; and anon
My fancy flings her cloak of Darkness on,
To vanish from the dungeon of To-day.
In happier times and scenes I seem to be,
And, as her fingers flutter o'er the strings,
The days return when I was young as she,
And my fledged thoughts began to feel their wings
With all Heaven's blue before them: Memory
Or Music is it such enchantment sings?



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