Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Horæ Amoris: Songs and Sonnets (1903). IV. To an InstrumentRosa Newmarch (18571940)
O
To set thy stops to choral songs of praise,
Or draw thy subtlest undertones from thee,
Essayed to wake thy spirit in past days.
His touch is stilled for ever. Yet I stand
And listen while thy soulless, fickle keys,
In dull obedience to a stranger’s hand,
For other ears give forth fresh voluntaries.
And some there be, whose hearts thus lightly move
In shallow melody to each new touch,
And deem these mutable vibrations Love.
O Unforgotten, mine is not of such!
Whose strings broke when its only player went.