Flute-Music, With An Accompaniment

He.    Ah, the bird-like fluting     Through the ash-tops yonder,     Bullfinch-bubblings, soft sounds suiting     What sweet thoughts, I wonder?     Fine-pearled notes that surely     Gather, dewdrop-fashion,     Deep-down in some heart which purely     Secretes globuled passion,     Passion insuppressive,     Such is piped, for certain;     Love, no doubt, nay, love excessive     Tis your ash-tops curtain.     Would your ash-tops open     We might spy the player,     Seek and find some sense which no pen     Yet from singer, sayer,     Ever has extracted:     Never, to my knowledge,     Yet has pedantry enacted     That, in Cupids College,     Just this variation     Of the old, old yearning     Should by plain speech have salvation,     Yield new men new learning.     Love! but what love, nicely     New from old disparted,     Would the player teach precisely?     First of all, be started     In my brain Assurance,     Trust, entire Contentment,     Passion proved by much endurance;     Then came, not resentment,     No, but simply Sorrow:     What was seen had vanished:     Yesterday so blue! To-morrow     Blank, all sunshine banished.     Hark! Tis Hope resurges,     Struggling through obstruction,     Forces a poor smile which verges     On joys introduction.     Now, perhaps, mere Musing:     Holds earth such a wonder?     Fairy-mortal, soul-sense-fusing     Past thoughts power to sunder!     What? calm Acquiescence?     Daisied turf gives room to     Trefoil, plucked once in her presence,     Growing by her tomb too!     She.    Alls your fancy-spinning!     Heres the fact: a neighbor     Never-ending, still beginning,     Recreates his labor:     Deep oer desk he drudges,     Adds, divides, subtracts and     Multiplies, until he judges     Noonday-hours exact sand     Shows the hour-glass emptied:     Then comes lawful leisure,     Minutes rare from toil exempted,     Fit to spend in pleasure.     Out then with, what treatise?     Youths Complete Instructor     How to play the Flute. Quid petis?     Follow Youths conductor     On and on, through Easy,     Up to Harder, Hardest     Flute-piece, till thou, flautist wheezy,     Possibly discardest     Tootlings hoarse and husky,     Mayst expend with courage     Breath, on tunes once bright, now dusky,     Meant to cool thy porridge.     Thats an air of Tulous     He maltreats persistent,     Till as lief Id hear some Zulus     Bone-piped bag, breath-distent,     Madden native dances.     Im the mans familiar:     Unexpectedness enhances     What your ears auxiliar     Fancy, finds suggestive.     Listen! Thats legato     Rightly played, his fingers restive     Touch as if staccato.     He.    Ah, you trick-betrayer!     Telling tales, unwise one?     So the secret of the player     Was, he could surprise one     Well-nigh into trusting     Here was a musician     Skilled consummately, yet lusting     Through no vile ambition     After making captive     All the world, rewarded     Amply by one strangers rapture.     Common praise discarded.     So, without assistance     Such as music rightly     Needs and claims, defying distance,     Overleaping lightly     Obstacles which hinder,     He, for my approval,     All the same and all the kinder     Made mine what might move all     Earth to kneel adoring:     Took, while he piped Gounods     Bit of passionate imploring,     Me for Juliet: who knows?     No! as you explain things,     Alls mere repetition,     Practise-pother: of all vain things     Why waste pooh or pish on     Toilsome effort, never     Ending, still beginning     After what should pay endeavor     Right-performance? winning     Weariness from you who,     Ready to admire some     Owls fresh hooting, Tu-whit, to-who,     Find stale thrush-songs tiresome.     She.    Songs, Spring thought perfection,     Summer criticises:     What in May escaped detection,     August, past surprises,     Notes, and names each blunder.     You, the just-initiate,     Praise to hearts content (what wonder?)     Tootings I hear vitiate     Romeos serenading,     I who, times full twenty,     Turned to ice, no ash-tops aiding,     At his caldamente.     So, twas distance altered     Sharps to flats? The missing     Bar when syncopation faltered     (You thought, paused for kissing!)     Ash-tops too felonious     Intercepted? Rather     Say, they well-nigh made euphonious     Discord, helped to gather     Phrase, by phrase, turn patches     Into simulated     Unity which botching matches,     Scraps redintegrated.     He.    Sweet, are you suggestive     Of an old suspicion     Which has always found me restive     To its admonition     When it ventured whisper     Fool, the strifes and struggles     Of your trembler, blusher, lisper     Were so many juggles,     Tricks tried, oh, so often!     Which once more do duty,     Find again a heart to soften,     Soul to snare with beauty.     Birth-blush of the briar-rose,     Mist-bloom of the hedge-sloe,     Some one gainst the prize: admire rose     Would he, when noons wedge, slow,     Sure, has pushed, expanded     Rathe pink to raw redness?     Would he covet sloe when sanded     By road-dust to deadness?     So, restore their value!     Ply a water-sprinkle     Then guess sloe is fingered, shall you?     Find in rose a wrinkle?     Here what played Aquarius?     Distance, ash-tops aiding,     Reconciled scraps else contrarious,     Brightened stuff fast fading.     Distance, call your shyness:     Was the fair one peevish?     Coyness softened out of slyness.     Was she cunning, thievish,     All-but proved impostor?     Bear but one days exile,     Ugly traits were wholly lost or     Screened by fancies flexile,     Ash-tops these, you take me?     Fancies interference     Changed . . .     But since I sleep, dont wake me!     What if alls appearance?     Is not outside seeming     Real as substance inside?     Both are facts, so leave me dreaming:     If who loses wins Id     Ever lose, conjecture,     From one phrase trilled deftly,     All the piece. So, end your lecture,     Let who lied be left lie!