| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. Perplexed Music | | By Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) |
| | (Affectionately inscribed to Elizabeth Jago)
EXPERIENCE, like a pale musician, holds | |
| A dulcimer of patience in his hand; | |
| Whence harmonies we cannot understand | |
| Of God’s will in his worlds, the strain unfolds | |
| In sad, perplexéd minors. Deathly colds | 5 |
| Fall on us while we hear, and countermand | |
| Our sanguine heart back from the fancy-land, | |
| With nightingales in visionary wolds. | |
| We murmur, “Where is any certain tune, | |
| Or measured music, in such notes as these?” | 10 |
| But angels, leaning from the golden seat, | |
| Are not so minded! Their fine ear hath won | |
| The issue of completed cadences; | |
| And smiling down the stars, they whisper, “Sweet.” | | | | |
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