Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Philip Bourke Marston 1850–87

Love and Music

I LISTEN’D to the music broad and deep:

I heard the tenor in an ecstasy

Touch the sweet, distant goal; I heard the cry

Of prayer and passion; and I heard the sweep

Of mighty wings, that in their waving keep

The music that the spheres make endlessly;—

Then my cheek shiver’d, tears made blind mine eye;

As flame to flame I felt the quick blood leap,

And, through the tides and moonlit winds of sound,

To me love’s passionate voice grew audible.

Again I felt thy heart to my heart bound,

Then silence on the viols and voices fell;

But, like the still, small voice within a shell,

I heard Love thrilling through the void profound.