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ABT VOGLER.

(AFTER HE HAS BEEN EXTEMPORIZING UPON THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT OF HIS INVENTION.)

F

ABT VOGLER.

1.

WOULD that the structure brave, the manifold music I

build,

Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their

work,

Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed

Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk,

Man, brute, reptile, fly,-alien of end and of aim,

Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep

removed,

Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable

Name,

And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved!

2.

Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of mine,

This which my keys in a crowd pressed and importuned to raise !

Ah, one and all, how they helped, would dispart now and now combine,

Zealous to hasten the work, heighten their master

his praise!

And one would bury his brow with a blind plunge down to hell,

Burrow awhile and build, broad on the roots of

things,

Then up again swim into sight, having based me my palace well,

Founded it, fearless of flame, flat on the nether springs.

3.

And another would mount and march, like the excellent

minion he was,

Ay, another and yet another, one crowd but with

many a crest,

Raising my rampired walls of gold as transparent as

glass,

Eager to do and die, yield each his place to the rest :

For higher still and higher (as a runner tips with fire, When a great illumination surprises a festal nightOutlining round and round Rome's dome from space to spire)

Up, the pinnacled glory reached, and the pride of my soul was in sight.

4.

In sight? Not half! for it seemed, it was certain, to match man's birth,

Nature in turn conceived, obeying an impulse as I; And the emulous heaven yearned down, made effort to reach the earth,

As the earth had done her best, in my passion, to

scale the sky:

Novel splendours burst forth, grew familiar and dwelt with mine,

Not a point nor peak but found and fixed its wander

ing star;

Meteor-moons, balls of blaze: and they did not pale

nor pine,

For earth had attained to heaven, there was no more

near nor far.

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