Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ODE TO A 'STRAD' VIOLIN, by MARCUS S. C. RICKARDS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ODE TO A 'STRAD' VIOLIN, by                    
First Line: Conceived in heaven, formed on earth
Last Line: Of its brief radiance pale!
Subject(s): Heaven; Nature; Silence; Violins; Paradise


CONCEIVED in Heaven, formed on Earth,
Immortal Genius gave thee birth!
Rich tone, rare fashion stamp thy worth
And prove thy pedigree.
It may be Nature's music clings
Round even severed sylvan things,
And so perchance thy substance brings
A boon from land and sea.

This frame, so exquisite, long stood
Mid the arboreal brotherhood
Steeped with the warblings of a wood
Nigh some soft southern wave,
A reminiscence of whose chimes
May wake strange harmony at times,
As echoes from pre-natal climes
Lethean spells outbrave.

His hand, methinks, who carved it wrought
The true expression of a Thought
Divine, that whispering Angels brought,
And bid him mould aright.
I deemed that Music's utmost spell
To elevate, and soothe and quell,
Was spent, until I heard thee tell
Thy story of delight.

Ah! then I knew what wealth remains,
What potency for glorious gains,
What frenzies, what harmonious pains,
Still tremble to my quest.
O meet to grace a Seraph Choir!
Thy magic flames me with desire
Now kindled by the master's fire
That haunts his rich bequest;

And fed by what may linger still
From all that tuned thee to their will,
And made thee speak and wail or trill
As passion pitched the key --
From each full heart in years gone by
Who, barred from human sympathy,
Seemed listening for a sweet reply
To all it told to thee --

Desire that burns with feverish glow
And borrows hue from ebb and flow
Of billowy music as the bow
All deftly sweeps thy strings:
Her changeful moods and finished art
Who wields it bids some dormant part
Of my true being wake, and dart
To reach supernal things.

Things whose delight I can but taste,
For scarce I touch what I have chased
But it recedes in mocking haste
To tantalize again.
So Love still beckons from the Skies,
So Beauty flashes rare surprise,
So Sadness robed in tender guise
Taunts with delicious pain.

The Virtues many, Graces all,
Divinely sun their charms, and call
In promise of enchanting thrall
So I but win their Realm:
Nay! be it still unwon, there gleams
On my foiled spirit, as she dreams,
A Light, whose faintest glory beams
Earth's utmost bliss o'erwhelm.

Elusive Joys, that wizard Sound
Thus conjures up! ye hover round
To vanish in a gloom profound
That deepens as ye fail:
Musician fair, stem not this rush
Of melody, lest Silence hush
My heart's sweet tumult, and the flush
Of its brief radiance pale!





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net