Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | III. Perplexed Music | By Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (18061861) |
| (Affectionately inscribed to Elizabeth Jago) EXPERIENCE, like a pale musician, holds | |
A dulcimer of patience in his hand; | |
Whence harmonies we cannot understand | |
Of Gods will in his worlds, the strain unfolds | |
In sad, perplexéd minors. Deathly colds | 5 |
Fall on us while we hear, and countermand | |
Our sanguine heart back from the fancy-land, | |
With nightingales in visionary wolds. | |
We murmur, Where is any certain tune, | |
Or measured music, in such notes as these? | 10 |
But angels, leaning from the golden seat, | |
Are not so minded! Their fine ear hath won | |
The issue of completed cadences; | |
And smiling down the stars, they whisper, Sweet. | | | |
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