University of Virginia Library


117

VII.

And yet again I said, “Go forth, and see!
Your tones are glad and solemn as the strains
To which men worship in their holiest fanes.
Proclaim the glory of the days to be,
When Love himself, in sovereign ministrelsy,
From lands where he in visible godhead reigns,
Shall wake that lordlier music which sustains
All souls to look on his divinity.”
O songs! my songs, did I not bid ye say,
“Pardon, O queen, wherein we failed to show
The bliss that turns his night to glorious day?”
So did ye say, my songs; and well I know
She took your singing voices to be part
Of the diviner music of her heart.