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Nilsson.

By Sidney Lanier

Topics: classic

A rose of perfect red, embossed     With silver sheens of crystal frost,     Yet warm, nor life nor fragrance lost.     High passion throbbing in a sphere     That Art hath wrought of diamond clear,      - A great heart beating in a tear.     The listening soul is full of dreams     That shape the wondrous-varying themes     As cries of men or plash of streams.     Or noise of summer rain-drops round     That patter daintily a-ground     With hints of heaven in the sound.     Or noble wind-tones chanting free     Through morning-skies across the sea     Wild hymns to some strange majesty.     O, if one trope, clear-cut and keen,     May type the art of Song's best queen,     White-hot of soul, white-chaste of mien,     On Music's heart doth Nilsson dwell     As if a Swedish snow-flake fell     Into a glowing flower-bell.     New York, 1871.

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"A rose of perfect red, embossed..."

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Sidney Lanier

About Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier (1842–1881) was an American poet and musician whose poems—including "The Marshes of Glynn" and "Song of the Chattahoochee"—are known for their musical quality and celebration of the Southern landscape.

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