Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE MUSIC OF THE STREAM, by JANET HAMILTON Poet's Biography First Line: Is it a spirit voice - an angel's song Last Line: And beauty, bloom, and song exist no more. Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson Subject(s): Brooks; Nature; Streams; Creeks | ||||||||
Is it a spirit voicean angel's song That pours its liquid melody among The mossy stones that break the rippling sheen, Lone Calder! gliding thy fair banks between? No! 'tis the voicethe music of the stream, That chimes harmonious with the poet's dream: A dream of beauty, radiant and divine, A halo floating round the muses' shrine. Oft in sweet summer prime I singing strayed Down yon deep dell and through the woodland glade, To woo fair Nature in soft Doric rhymes, And hear the tinkling of thy silver chimes. And, ah, what glorious wealth of wilding flowers! What wealth of fragrant blossoms on thy bowers! What odorous breathings of the summer breeze! What chorus of sweet singers in the trees! O Nature! fairer, dearer to my heart Than pictured scenes of highest, rarest art! What sweeter chord can charm the spirit dream Than the weird music of the singing stream? Fond Memory treasures in her deepest cell The woodland glade, the deep romantic dell, Where oft the summer day too brief would seem, When wandering, musing, by lone Calder's stream. "A change came o'er the spirit of my dream," I heard no more the music of the stream: The flowers and blooms were withered, trampled, soiled, Nature's fair face of every charm despoiled. For, lo! obscuring the fair light of day, The genii of the mines, in grim array, With baleful wings the landscape shadowed o'er, And beauty, bloom, and song exist no more. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOWN THE BROOK by ROBERT FROST A CLEARING BY A STREAM by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER STREAM by ALICIA SUSKIN OSTRIKER THE ASPEN AND THE STREAM by RICHARD WILBUR WEST RUNNING BROOK by ROBERT FROST BIRCH STREAM by ANNA BOYNTON AVERILL THE VALLEY BROOK by JOHN HOWARD BRYANT A BALLAD FOUNDED ON A REAL INCIDENT WHICH OCCURED IN HIGH LIFE by JANET HAMILTON |
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