POEMS OF 1844: SONNETS


PERPLEXED MUSIC

AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED TO E. J.

EXPERIENCE, like a pale musician, holds
A dulcimer of patience in his hand,
Whence harmonies, we cannot understand,
Of God; will in his worlds, the strain unfolds
In sad-perplexed minors: deathly colds
Fall on us while we hear, and countermand
Our sanguine heart back from the fancyland
With nightingales in visionary wolds.
We murmur ' Where is any certain tune
Or measured music in such notes as these ? '
But angels, leaning from the golden seat,
Are not so minded their fine ear hath won
The issue of completed cadences,
And, smiling down the stars, they whisper--
     SWEET.


These poems are selections from the 1844 work originally entitled
_Poems. By Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Author of The Seraphim, etc. In two
volumes_. They were prepared for electronic distribution by the inforM
staff. Questions or comments should be directed to inform-editor@umail.umd.edu.