Republican Herald

MUSIC AND POETRY.

Who that hath felt the charms of music steal
O'er his rapt senses, but hath felt the power
Of a most sweet enchantress? The pure air
That wafts the thrilling heavenly sound is holy,
And the unhallowed breath of him who hath
"No music in his soul, who is not charmed
By concord of sweet sounds," should never
breathe
The air where music floats.

I have been charmed by music. The eve
Was clear and bright and beautiful—The moon
Hung her chaste lamp high in the vault of heaven,
And the soft breath of mellow Autumn, waved
The party colored forest.

A large, a bright blue laughing eye was there
Which gazed with me upon the mottled scene
The softest breathings of the lute went by,
A sweet seraphic voice caught up the strain
And swelled its mellow cadence till the air
Was filled with melody—And oh, ye Powers
Above, if from your brighter spheres ye had
But lisped to the sound from those sweet lips
Ye would have been enraptured;

I was charmed away from this ungracious earth
To the bright spheres where saints and angels dwell.

And poetry is music.

When thoughts that burn the inmost soul of man
And rouse his blood to vengeance, like the trump
Of war to leagued hosts, is garbed in rhyme,
Tis dearest music to the warrior's heart
But when in flowing numbers some soft tale
Of unrequited love, of holy vows, or happy bridal hours,
Is told by the chaste bard in purest style,
Tis like the breathing of the summer breeze
In softest murmurs o'er the sweet toned harp,
fit music for the maidens leafy bower
to lull the soul into forgetfulness.

But there are hearts so cold, so destitute
Of the fine feelings of the human mind,
So frozen in the ice of ignorance
Of heavenly things, that an eternal thaw
Could never melt the icebergs from about
The rigid region of their gloomy thoughts,
Such hearts I like not, nor there cannot see