Let the Ear Read

Read not with eye alone,

Let the ear read:

Then shall you see the lines

Of rhythmic speed

Gather and curve to form

Bodies of gold—

A glory that can never

To the eye unfold

Unless a hush, intent

With wondering,

Hears that unearthly sweetness

Goldenly ring!

Sight is the surface mind,

Sound the deep heart:

Until you catch in the poet's

Magical art

The throb and thrill and throe.

Of this profound,

The gods of unbearable beauty

Are never found.

Not when the brain goes dreaming,

But when we kiss

A night unknown and the heart

Breaks with blind bliss,

Our tunes are suddenly born

Out of a calm

Vaster than all the world

And in our palm

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Is felt a quenchless fire

And our fingers are flames,

Bright tongues that quiver out

Revealing names

For all they touch on earth,

Names echoing

Secrets aglow behind

Each mortal thing.

Thus do we bear to you

With every word

Thoughts that seem tangible

As soon as heard—

Thoughts that can open eyes

To search within,

Where souls uncrossed by shadow,

Shapes without sin

Await in smiling slumber

The dawn-hour when

Their immortalities

Shall wake in men.

But eyes will never see them

If ears cannot hark

The wind of a mystery

Divinely dark,

The ageless all-creative

Ecstatic Breath

Which blew the rhythm of life

Through chaos and death.

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