 | Virginalia ; or, songs of my summer nights |  |
ISRAFELIA.
Composed on hearing Jonny Lind sing in Castle Garden, N. Y.
“Cœlo venit aures dextro.”
—Manilius.
—Manilius.
They tell us that there was in Heaven above
An Angel whose sweet heartstrings are a lute,
Who, when he doth dispart his lips of love,
The Angels with their ravishment grow mute;
And the rapt Muses with their bowed heads pine
To see in him all that they thought their own by right divine.
An Angel whose sweet heartstrings are a lute,
Who, when he doth dispart his lips of love,
The Angels with their ravishment grow mute;
And the rapt Muses with their bowed heads pine
To see in him all that they thought their own by right divine.
They tell us, too, that there was once on high
A Star, the brightest of the radiant Seven,
Which long ago departed from the sky,
And either came on earth, or went to Heaven—
Leaving the Six sad Sisters to lament
The loss of that whose glory filled the firmament.
A Star, the brightest of the radiant Seven,
Which long ago departed from the sky,
And either came on earth, or went to Heaven—
Leaving the Six sad Sisters to lament
The loss of that whose glory filled the firmament.
63
This Angel, who was once in Heaven above,
Whose living heartstrings are a lute;
This Star which circled in the Courts of Love,
For whose long absence now the rest are mute—
Is here on earth! Queen of the radiant Seven!
The living Glory of the Six now left in Heaven!
Whose living heartstrings are a lute;
This Star which circled in the Courts of Love,
For whose long absence now the rest are mute—
Is here on earth! Queen of the radiant Seven!
The living Glory of the Six now left in Heaven!
This glorious Angel stooping from her sphere,
A blessing from the Gods to mortals given—
Has come to lift us from this dark world here,
Upon the wings of music into Heaven!
Now the rapt Muses with their bowed heads pine
To see in her all that they thought their own by right divine.
A blessing from the Gods to mortals given—
Has come to lift us from this dark world here,
Upon the wings of music into Heaven!
Now the rapt Muses with their bowed heads pine
To see in her all that they thought their own by right divine.
New York, January 10th, 1861.
| Virginalia ; or, songs of my summer nights | |