Scan 59

Songs of my violin, 1901

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

1Of songs that are born but die in the heart?

2Why does it never re-echo the whole

3Of th' ineffable sigh of the soul? "

4Thus sighing with the artist's keenest pain,

5His eyes went dreaming far across the main.

6When lo! in the cave

7Of a sea-green wave

8The lithe form of a mermaid gleamed.

9Pearly as a moonlit haze,

10Streaked with lucent chrysoprase,

11A day-dream of the brine she seemed.

12But no! she moves, she breathes, she sings

13A song like soft sea-murmurings:

14"From a golden isle, in the sunset sea,

15I bring a golden gift for thee.

16In the wondrous island a fairy dwells,

17Where earthly sighs are asphodels.

18At a spinning-wheel, spinning all day long,

19She weaves the sunshine into song.

20And she spins it straight into magic strings

21For harps through which the zephyr sings

22When it sighs through heaven the hour of rest—

23The mild-voiced curfew of the West.

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