 | Poems (1895) |  |
114
XLIV.—XLV. BEETHOVEN'S “SONATA WITH THE FUNERAL MARCH.”
1.
Man is a noble animal: in ashes“Splendid, and pompous in the grave; nativities
“And deaths with equal lustres solemnizing;
“Nor ceremonies, in his nature's infamy,
“Of bravery omitting.”—Thus, in majesty
Of words like pyramids o'er death-bones rising,
Spake he who saw things from their cloud-acclivities,
Where light from high above blinds and abashes:
And thus this mighty music speaks sublimely,
The dark scene it proclaimeth glorifying;
Evolving the Eternal from the Timely;
And seems attending, as its death-note rolls,
And awful army of triumphant souls,
Toward Eternity in thunder flying.
115
2.
And, from the instrument it seemeth notThe grandeur of its harmony ariseth,
Which life in death with more than life surpriseth;
But from the soul of her who, like a thought,
Sits there entranced; herself and all forgot
That lives and moves around her; and compriseth
Within herself the marvel she deviseth—
A music upon music's self begot!
It cometh from her like to shrouded light
From the great Sun, eclipsed; like echoes loud
From billow-beaten rocks, when in the night
The struggling elements wage starless war;
Like solemn thunder from a midnight cloud;
Or awful winds from caves oracular.
1845.
| Poems (1895) | |