| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | Symphonic Studies: Prelude | | By Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) |
| | (After Robert Schumann)
BLUE storm-clouds in hot heavens of mid-July | |
| Hung heavy, brooding over land and sea: | |
| Our hearts, a-tremble, throbbed in harmony | |
| With the wild, restless tone of air and sky. | |
| Shall we not call him Prospero who held | 5 |
| In his enchanted hands the fateful key | |
| Of that tempestuous hour’s mystery, | |
| And with controlling wand our spirits spelled, | |
| With him to wander by a sun-bright shore, | |
| To hear fine, fairy voices, and to fly | 10 |
| With disembodied Ariel once more | |
| Above earth’s wrack and ruin? Far and nigh | |
| The laughter of the thunder echoed loud, | |
| And harmless lightnings leapt from cloud to cloud. | | | | |
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