Poems By William Bell Scott. Ballads, Studies from Nature, Sonnets, etc. Illustrated by Seventeen Etchings by the Author and L. Alma Tadema |
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187
THE MUSICIAN.
His sense transcends this world: the Muses' heavenIs where his soul was born, a wondrous child;
Instinct above the intellect is given
To the Musician; wordless, unlearned, wild,
Fancies of heart are his realities,
And over us as o'er base things he flies
Towards absorption in the harmonies
Of spheres unknown. Alas, within the maze
Of the actual world, hills, cattle, ships, and town,
Knowledge accumulative, mace and gown,
Wealth, science, law, he like a blind man strays!
Yet, wondrous child, be nevermore cast down,
Men hear thy fiddle-bow, and lose their pains,—
Compared to thee they are but serfs in chains.
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