Part 21 (1/2)

IV.

In cities and camps I have lighted my lamps, My kisses are caught by kings and tramps.

With rant and revel My hair I dishevel, And I am the queen of Astrofelle.

V.

My kisses are stains, Mine arms are chains, My forehead is fair and false like Cain's.

My gain is loss, Mine honour is dross,-- And I am the queen of Astrofelle!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

BEETHOVEN AT THE PIANO.

I.

See where Beethoven sits alone--a dream of days elysian, A crownless king upon a throne, reflected in a vision-- The man who strikes the potent chords which make the world, in wonder, Acknowledge him, though poor and dim, the mouthpiece of the thunder.

II.

He feels the music of the skies the while his heart is breaking; He sings the songs of Paradise, where love has no forsaking.

And, though so deaf he cannot hear the tempest as a token, He makes the music of his mind the grandest ever spoken.

III.

He doth not hear the whispered word of love in his seclusion, Or voice of friend, or song of bird, in Nature's sad confusion; But he hath made, for Love's sweet sake, so wild a declamation That all true lovers of the earth have claim'd him of their nation.

IV.

He had a Juliet in his youth, as Romeo had before him, And, Romeo-like, he sought to die that she might then adore him; But she was weak, as women are whose faith has not been proven, And would not change her name for his--Guiciardi for Beethoven.

V.

O minstrel, whom a maiden spurned, but whom a world has treasured!

O sovereign of a greater realm than man has ever measured!

Thou hast not lost the lips of love, but thou hast gain'd, in glory, The love of all who know the thrall of thine immortal story.

VI.

Thou art the bard whom none discard, but whom all men discover To be a G.o.d, as Orpheus was, albeit a lonely lover; A king to call the stones to life beside the roaring ocean, And bid the stars discourse to trees in words of man's emotion.