WHEN through life unblest we rove, Losing all that made life dear, Should some notes we used to love, In days of boyhood, meet our ear, Oh! how welcome breathes the strain! Wakening thoughts that long have slept! Kindling former smiles again In faded eyes that long have wept. Like the gale that sighs along Beds of oriental flowers, Is the grateful breath of song That once was heard in happier hours; Fill'd with balm, the gale sighs on, Though the flowers have sunk in death; So, when pleasure's dream is gone, Its memory lives in Music's breath. Music! oh, how faint, how weak, Language fades before thy spell! Why should Feeling ever speak, When thou canst breathe her soul so well? Friendship's balmy words may feign, Love's are even more false than they; Oh! 'tis only Music's strain Can sweetly soothe, and not betray! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SACRIFICE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE PAST IS THE PRESENT by MARIANNE MOORE ON A FLY DRINKING FROM HIS CUP by WILLIAM OLDYS PICTURE-SHOW by SIEGFRIED SASSOON THE SONG OF THE DIAL by PETER AIREY THE ALTAR STONE by RICHARD ALEXANDER |