 | Anne Evans: Poems and Music |  |
20
“CON ESPRESSIONE.”
Melodious lady, still be singing!
With notes impassioned ringing
Wild changes on the deep according tones
The tranced spirit owns,—
Unheard harmonics, fraught with rare delight;
Sing on to-night!
If e'er the time should come when thou
Dost feel those moods thou feignest now,
Wilt thou sing on?
Ah, trust me, lady, never try
The art and the reality
Blent in that overwhelming unison!
With notes impassioned ringing
Wild changes on the deep according tones
The tranced spirit owns,—
Unheard harmonics, fraught with rare delight;
Sing on to-night!
If e'er the time should come when thou
Dost feel those moods thou feignest now,
Wilt thou sing on?
Ah, trust me, lady, never try
The art and the reality
Blent in that overwhelming unison!
Nay, cease even now!
For even now methinks I see
Within thy song too much of thee!
O, woman of the mantling brow,
Cease even now!
The piercing diction
Of all thine eloquent fiction
Let echo rock to death,
With every breath
Of that so little nourishing applause
The artist from the undiscerning draws;
Ay, and the dear thanks of the finer few
Who base the beautiful upon the true!
For even now methinks I see
Within thy song too much of thee!
O, woman of the mantling brow,
Cease even now!
The piercing diction
Of all thine eloquent fiction
Let echo rock to death,
With every breath
21
The artist from the undiscerning draws;
Ay, and the dear thanks of the finer few
Who base the beautiful upon the true!
Wilt thou put on, thou lady gay,
Like any other festival-array,
The living treasures of the soul itself?
Wilt thou, for praise or pelf,
Withdraw them from their inner shade
And flaunt withal in broad factitious glare?
Beware,
Lest even so they fade!
Like any other festival-array,
The living treasures of the soul itself?
Wilt thou, for praise or pelf,
Withdraw them from their inner shade
And flaunt withal in broad factitious glare?
Beware,
Lest even so they fade!
| Anne Evans: Poems and Music | |