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Vigil and vision

New Sonnets by John Payne

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35

BUT FOR MUSIC ------

“WERE music not, in this our world, well nigh
“Might we avouch, the Beautiful is dead”.
So it of one who knew life well was said,
Beauty of that which to the ear and eye
Immediate is, which to the sense speaks high,
Intending. Here for how were beauty bred,
Where all fore-ordered is by count of head
Of brute majorities, but born to die?
Wherefore, thou darling spirit of delight,
That to our souls, with toil and misery
Forwearied, speak'st of lands of love and light,
Of isles of rest beyond the sheer sun's sight,
Whereas new heavens new earth o'erarch and sea,
Blesséd be thou to all eternity!
 

Disraeli.