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To Nannette Falk-Auerbach.

By Sidney Lanier

Topics: classic

Oft as I hear thee, wrapt in heavenly art,     The massive message of Beethoven tell     With thy ten fingers to the people's heart     As if ten tongues told news of heaven and hell, -     Gazing on thee, I mark that not alone,     Ah, not alone, thou sittest: there, by thee,     Beethoven's self, dear living lord of tone,     Doth stand and smile upon thy mastery.     Full fain and fatherly his great eyes glow:     He says, "From Heaven, my child, I heard thee call     (For, where an artist plays, the sky is low):     Yea, since my lonesome life did lack love's all,     In death, God gives me thee: thus, quit of pain,     Daughter, Nannette! in thee I live again."     Baltimore, 1878.

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"Oft as I hear thee, wrapt in heavenly art,..."

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Author:Sidney Lanier

"Oft as I hear thee, wrapt in heavenly art,..." by Sidney Lanier

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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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