MUSIC BENEATH THE STARS
Music beneath the Stars! remembering him
Who music loved, and who on such a night
Had, through white paths celestial, winged his flight,
Hearing the chanting of the cherubim—
Which even our ears seem now to apprehend,
Rising and falling in waves of splendid sound
That bear our grieving spirits from the ground
And with eternal things lift them and blend.
Now Bach's great Aria charms the starlit dark;
Now soars the Largo, high angelical,
Soothing all mortal sorrow on that breath;
And now, O sweet and sovereign strain! now hark
Of mighty Beethoven the rise and fall.
Such music 'neath the stars abolished death.
THE BIRDS OF WESTLAND
PRINCETON, JUNE, 1908
O birds of Westland, singing on
As blithely as of yore!
Do ye not know how deep he sleeps
Behind yon closèd door?
Do ye not know that he who hailed
Your music, dawn by dawn,
Hath, since he harkened yesterday,
From hearing been withdrawn?
O happy birds! I think ye know
He loved your joyful song,
And therefore in the growing light
Ye carol loud and long.
