Was o'er its strings; and on the streaming sail
He wiped them, running, with his fingers pale,
Along the tuneless notes, that only gave
Seldom responses to his wandering stave!

TO THE HARP

I

Jewel! that lay before the heart
Of some romantic boy,
And startled music in her home,
Of mystery and joy!

II

The image of his love was there;
And, with her golden wings,
She swept her tone of sorrow from
Thy melancholy strings!

III

We drew thee, as an orphan one,
From waters that had cast
No music round thee, as they went
In their pale beauty past.

IV

No music but the changeless sigh--
That murmur of their own,
That loves not blending in the thrill
Of thine aerial tone.

V

The girl that slumbers at our side
Will dream how they are bent,
That love her even as they love
Thy blessed instrument.

VI

And music, like a flood, will break
Upon the fairy throne
Of her pure heart, all glowing, like
A morning star, alone!

VII

Alone, but for the song of him
That waketh by her side,
And strikes thy chords of silver to
His fair and sea-borne bride.

VIII

Jewel! that hung before the heart
Of some romantic boy;
Like him, I sweep thee with a storm
Of music and of joy!

And Julio placed the trembling harp before
The ladye, till the minstrel winds came o'er
Its moisten'd strings, and tuned them with a sigh.
"I hear thee, how thy spirit goeth by,
In music and in love. Oh Agathe!
Thou sleepest long, long, long; and they will say
That seek thee,--'She is dead--she is no more!'
But thou art cold, and I will throw before
Thy chilly brow the pale and snowy sheet."
And he did lift it from her marble feet,
The sea-wet shroud! and flung it silently
Over her brow--the brow of Agathe!

But, as a passion from the mooded mind,
The storm had died, and wearily the wind
Fell fast asleep at evening, like one
That hath been toiling in the fiery sun.
And the white sail dropt downward, as the wing
Of wounded sea-bird, feebly murmuring
Unto the mast. It was a deathly calm,
And holy stillness, like a shadow, swam
All over the wide sea, and the boat stood.
Like her of Sodom, in the solitude,
A s