Three Sonnets (Instrumental Music, Beethoven, Mozart)

by Margaret Fuller

INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC.

The charms of melody, in simple airs,

 By human voices sung, are always felt;

 With thoughts responsive, careless hearers melt,

Of secret ills, which our frail nature bears.

 We listen, weep, forget. But when the throng

Of a great Master’s thoughts, above the reach

Of words or colors, wire and wood can teach

 By laws which to the spirit-world belong,—

When several parts, to tell one mood combined,

 Flash meaning on us we can ne’er express,

Giving to matter subtlest powers of Mind,

 Superior joys attentive souls confess.

The harmony which suns and stars obey,

Blesses our earth-bound state with visions of supernal day.

BEETHOVEN.

Most intellectual master of the art,

 Which, best of all, teaches the mind of man

 The universe in all its varied plan,—

What strangely mingled thoughts thy strains impart!

Here the faint tenor thrills the inmost heart,

 There the rich bass the Reason’s balance shows;

 Here breathes the softest sigh that Love e’er knows;

There sudden fancies, seeming without chart,

 Float into wildest breezy interludes;

The past is all forgot,—hopes sweetly breathe,

And our whole being glows,—when lo! beneath

 The flowery brink, Despair’s deep sob concludes!

Startled, we strive to free us from the chain,—

Notes of high triumph swell, and we are thine again!

MOZART.

If to the intellect and passions strong

 Beethoven speak, with such resistless power,

 Making us share the full creative hour,

When his wand fixed wild Fancy’s mystic throng,

Oh nature’s finest lyre! to thee belong

 The deepest, softest tones of tenderness,

 Whose purity the listening angels bless,

With silvery clearness of seraphic song.

Sad are those chords, oh, heavenward striving soul!

 A love, which never found its home on earth,

 Pensively vibrates, even in thy mirth,

And gentle laws thy lightest notes control;

Yet dear that sadness! Spheral concords felt

Purify most those hearts which most they melt.