To A Lady Playing The Harp

Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872 (Dayton) – 1906



Thy tones are silver melted into sound,
And as I dream
I see no walls around,
But seem to hear
A gondolier
Sing sweetly down some slow Venetian stream.

Italian skies--that I have never seen--
I see above.
(Ah, play again, my queen;
Thy fingers white
Fly swift and light
And weave for me the golden mesh of love.)

Oh, thou dusk sorceress of the dusky eyes
And soft dark hair,
'T is thou that mak'st my skies
So swift to change
To far and strange:
But far and strange, thou still dost make them fair.

Now thou dost sing, and I am lost in thee
As one who drowns
In floods of melody.
Still in thy art
Give me this part,
Till perfect love, the love of loving crowns.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

40 sec read
56

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAXXB CDCEED FGFHHG IJIKKJ
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 646
Words 133
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6, 6

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar was a seminal American poet of the late 19th and early 20th centuries Dunbar gained national recognition for his 1896 Lyrics of a Lowly Life one poem in the collection being Ode to Ethiopia more…

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    In the Edward Lear poem, which instrument does the Owl play while serenading the Pussy Cat?
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