Scan 52

Songs of my violin, 1901

27 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.

1VI.

3A strain so sweet that, as it launched in air

4And floated to the ambient everywhere,

5All meaner sounds were hushed and put to shame;

6The birds were silent in the woodland nigh,

7And e’en the cuckoo ceased his time-worn cry,

8To wonder whence the dulcet music came!

10VII.

12Within the hedges of the neighb’ring vale

13There sat a sylvan, song-filled nightingale,

14And brooded o’er the lay he soon would trill;

15But when he heard the beauteous, swan-born air,

16His minstrel hopes turned into vague despair,

17And all that evening he was sad and still.

19VIII.

21At last, as twilight mellowed into night,

22The muted echoes faded with the light,

23And silence settled all the place along—

24Then, with a spread of wings, from off the pond

25The swan flew feebly to the shore beyond,

26And died, as died the echoes of her song.

The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.