CHOPIN

O soul most beautiful, and loving heart! O bright, wild bird, - now crooning on thy nest,

Now soaring, sped by a divine unrest, How Nature speaks through thy perfected Art!

Till from our eyes ecstatic tears do start,

Till all our soul and senses are possest, And we must weep or smile at thy behest, And in thine ever changing mood take part, Like watchers on enchanted Mount, who see Fair visions pass at a magician's call,The fairer for their cloud of mystery,Who feel the necromancer's spell and fall Entranced beneath its pow'r, nor would be free,

So deep the rapture and so sweet the

thrall!

Zitella Cocke.

A MAZURKA OF CHOPIN

Play on, play on, the low lights wane,
So, softly, softly play!

For your fingers draw me away, away,

And dreamland comes again.

Are you 'ware of little stars in a pale sky!
Play on, and say no word!

There is scarce the breath of a midnight sigh,
Or a frond of the fern-wood stirred;
Was there ever a night so magic still?
Only a low moon is peeping

Through the sway of aspens sleeping, And a ripple frets the rushes in the rill: Are you 'ware of little feet upon the grass, Tripping, rushing,

Hardly brushing

Any feather of the frailest as they pass,

Of a twinkle of infinite tiny feet,

And the kissing of tiny kisses?
Never was night so summer-sweet
Blessed of the moon as this is!
They are threading in endless mazes,
Lifting the drowsy fold

Of the lids of the sleeping daisies
For a look at the eyes of gold:
Gossamer robes of delicate weft
Cling light on the moony air,
Rosy petals, a pardoned theft,

Are bound on the streaming hair;-
Now round and round in a linking chain,

Round and round and away again!

They are dancing to the ripple they are moving,

Keeping time to the glinting of the star; There's a glowworm for the lantern of their loving,

And wedding-bells are ringing where the heather-flowers are.

Can you hear their little voices? You would hear

If it were not for the ripple on the stream: Still, for a moment,

now you hear,

Marvellous sweetly, clear and near,

Under that silver beam,

Songs of a wonder-world, my dear,

World of a wonder-dream.

Sir Rennell Rodd.

HANDEL'S LARGO

When the great organs, answering each to each,

Joined with the violin's celestial speech, Then did it seem that all the heavenly host Gave praise to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:

We saw the archangels through the ether

winging;

We heard their souls go forth in solemn sing

ing;

"Praise, praise to God," they sang, "through endless days,

Praise to the Eternal One, and nought but praise;"

And as they sang the spirits of the dying

Were upward borne from lips that ceased their sighing;

And dying was not death, but deeper living — Living, and prayer, and praising and thanksgiving!

Richard Watson Gilder.

CHOPIN

I

A dream of interlinking hands, of feet
Tireless to spin the unseen, fairy woof,

Of the entangling waltz. Bright eyebeams meet,

Gay laughter echoes from the vaulted roof. Warm perfumes rise; the soft unflickering

glow

Of branching lights sets off the changeful charms

Of glancing gems, rich stuffs, the dazzling

snow

Of necks unkerchieft, and bare, clinging arms.
Hark to the music! How beneath the strain
Of reckless revelry, vibrates and sobs
One fundamental chord of constant pain,
The pulse-beat of the poet's heart that throbs.
So yearns, though all the dancing waves re-
joice,

The troubled sea's disconsolate, deep voice.

II

Who shall proclaim the golden fable false
Of Orpheus' miracles? This subtle strain.
Above our prose-world's sordid loss and gain
Lightly uplifts us. With the rhythmic waltz,
The lyric prelude, the nocturnal song
Of love and languor, varied visions rise,
That melt and blend to our enchanted eyes.
The Polish poet who sleeps silenced long,
The seraph-souled musician, breathes again
Eternal eloquence, immortal pain.

Revived the exalted face we know so well,
The illuminated eyes, the fragile frame,