Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/239

Rh Or if the boreal pulsings, rose and white,

Made a majestic music in the night;

If all the orbs lost in the light of day

In the deep, silent blue began their harps to play;

And when in frightening skies the lightnings flashed

And storm-clouds crashed,

If every stroke of light and sound were but excess of beauty;

If human syllables could e'er refashion

That fierce electric passion;

If other art could match (as were the poet's duty)

The grieving, and the rapture, and the thunder

Of that keen hour of wonder,—

That light as if of heaven, that blackness as of hell,—

How the great master plays then might I dare to tell.

II

How the great master plays! And was it he

Or some disbodied spirit which had rushed

From silence into singing; and had crushed

Into one startled hour a life's felicity,

And highest bliss of knowledge—that all pain, grief, wrong,

Turn at the last to beauty and to song!

HANDEL'S LARGO

the great organs, answering each to each,

Joined with the violin's celestial speech,

Then did it seem that all the heavenly host

Gave praise to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost:

We saw the archangels through the ether winging;

We heard their souls go forth in solemn singing;

"Praise, praise to God," they sang, "through endless days,