The God of Music

The God of Music dwelleth out of doors.

All seasons through his minstrelsy we meet,

Breathing by field and covert haunting-sweet

From organ-lofts in forests old he pours:

A solemn harmony: on leafy floors

To smooth autumnal pipes he moves his feet,

Or with the tingling plectrum of the sleet

In winter keen beats out his thrilling scores.

Leave me the reed unplucked beside the stream.

And he will stoop and fill it with the breeze;

Leave me the viol's frame in secret trees,

Unwrought, and it shall wake a druid theme;

Leave me the whispering shell on Nereid shores.

The God of Music dwelleth out of doors.

Edith M. Thomas.