 | Vigil and vision |  |
44
MENDELSSOHN.
1. QUARTETT OP. 12 IN E♭
WHAT are these wild sweet voices, swelling, throngingAbout the wood-ways, with the frolic beams
Of fancy oversunned, wherein, meseems,
Shy Nature's very speech I hear prolonging
A tale of realms of rapture, from Life's wronging
Removed afar, of Paradisal dreams,
Dreamt out by undiscovered meads and streams,
That overfloods my soul with love and longing?
Nought is there here of the affright and sadness
Which haunt the traces of our toiling feet;
But here the primal innocence and sweet
Of life abide, in all content and gladness,
Nor consolation from the hope need borrow
Of some imaginary better morrow.
2. A MINOR SYMPHONY.—ADAGIO.
ALL hail, thou holy, heaven-attempered soul,That, hither banished from thy native sky
And in our dust-heap doomed to live and die,
Unstirred by all its chances, joy and dole,
With eyes fast fixed upon the constant pole,
Through all Life's shifting scenes, smile, tear, frown, sigh,
Earth's blandishments disdained, her lures put by,
Farest unfaltering tow'rd thy heavenly goal!
Now, happy spright, is thy release at hand;
Well nigh thy weary pilgrimage is o'er:
For, hark, the harps and flutes of heaven resound,
To welcome thee; its airs and flames around
Breathing, the angels hover, to the shore
To bear thee of the blue celestial land.
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