Unstrung

Ada Cambridge 1844 (St Germans, Norfolk) – 1926 (Melbourne)



My skies were blue, and my sun was bright,
And, with fingers tender and strong and light,
He woke up the music that slept before—
Echoing, echoing evermore!

By-and-by, my skies grew grey;—
No master-touch on the harp-strings lay,—
Dead silence cradled the notes divine:
His soul had wander'd away from mine.

Idly, o'er strange harps swept his hand,
Seeking for music more wild and grand.
He wearied at last of his fruitless quest,
And he came again to my harp for rest.

But the dust lay thick on the golden wires,
And they would not thrill to the old desires.
The chords, so broken and jarred with pain,
Could never be tender and sweet again.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

36 sec read
125

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABB CCDD EEFF GGXX
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 641
Words 120
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Ada Cambridge

Ada Cambridge, later known as Ada Cross, was an English-born Australian writer. She wrote more than 25 works of fiction, three volumes of poetry and two autobiographical works. Many of her novels were serialised in Australian newspapers but never published in book form. While she was known to friends and family by her married name, Ada Cross, her newspaper readers knew her as A. C.. She later reverted to her maiden name, Ada Cambridge, and that is how she is known today.  more…

All Ada Cambridge poems | Ada Cambridge Books

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    "Unstrung" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/129/unstrung>.

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