Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
The Tunes Dan Harrison Used to Play
By William Henry Venable (18361920)O
Serenely back from childhood’s years,
Awaking thoughts that slumbered long,
Compelling smiles or starting tears,
The music of a violin
Seems through my window floating in;
I think I hear from far away
The tunes Dan Harrison used to play.
Beside the roaring, winter hearth,
Playing away with might and main,
His honest face aglow with mirth;
And when he laid his bow aside,
“Well done! well done!” he gayly cried;
Well done! well done! indeed were they,
The tunes Dan Harrison used to play.
I cannot name one melody;
His instrument was never made
In old Cremona o’er the sea;
And yet I sadly, sadly fear
Such tunes I never more may hear,
Some were so mournful, some so gay,
The tunes Dan Harrison used to play.
Of many a master of the bow,
But none has had the power to thrill
Like him I celebrate; and so
I sit and strive, not all in vain,
To hear his minstrelsy again;
And from the past I call to-day
The tunes Dan Harrison used to play.
Seraphic harping faintly blends;
I catch amid the mingling notes
Familiar voices of old friends;
And all my pensive soul within
Is melted by the violin,
That yields, at fancy’s magic sway,
The tunes Dan Harrison used to play.