Perplexed Music

Elizabeth Barrett Browning 1806 (Kelloe) – 1861 (Florence)



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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

29 sec read
132

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABBAABBACDEFGHE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 574
Words 100
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 15

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent English poets of the Victorian era. more…

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