Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: VOICES. Oh ! sometimes when the solemn organ rolls Its stream of sound down gray historic aisles; Or the full, high-pitched struggling symphony Pursues the fleeting melody in vain: Like a fawn through shadowy groves, or heroine Voiced like a lark, pours out in burning song Her love or grief; or when, to the rising stars Linked village maidens chant the hymn of eve; Or Sabbath concourse, flushed and dewy-eyed Booms its full bass; or before tasks begun, Fresh childish voices sanctify the morn: My eyes grow full, my heart forgets to beat. What is this mystic yearning fills my being ? Hark ! the low music wakes, and soft and slow Wanders at will through flowery fields of sound; Climbs gentle hills, and sinks in sunny vales, And stoops to cull sweet way-side blooms, and weaves A dainty garland; then, grown tired, casts down With careless hand the fragrant coronal, And child-like sings itself to sleep. The loud strain rises like a strong knight armed, Battling with wrong; or passionate seer of God Scathing with tongue of fire the hollow shows, The vain deceits of men; or law-giver, Parting in thunder from the burning hill With face aflame; or with fierce rush of wings And blazing brand, upon the crest of Sin, The swift archangel swooping; or the roll Which follows on the lightning;?all are there In that great hurry of sound. And then the voice Grows thinner like a lark’s, and soars and soars, And mounts in circles, higher, higher, higher, Up to heaven’s gate, and lo ! the unearthly song Thrills some fine inner chord, and the swift soul, Eager and fluttering like a prisoned bird, Breaks from its cage, and soars aloft to join The enfranchised sound, and for a moment seems To touch on some dim border-land of being, Full of high thought and glori…
