The Mystic Trumpeter

Hark! some wild trumpeter -- some strange musician,

Hovering unseen in air, vibrates capricious tunes to-night.

I hear thee, trumpeter -- listening, alert, I catch thy notes,

Now pouring, whirling like a tempest round me,

Now low, subdued -- now in the distance lost.

Come nearer, bodiless one -- haply, in thee resounds

Some dead composer -- haply thy pensive life

Was fill'd with aspirations high -- unform'd ideals,

Waves, oceans musical, chaotically surging,

That now, ecstatic ghost, close to me bending, thy cornet echoing, pealing,

Gives out to no one's ears but mine -- but freely gives to mine,

That I may thee translate.]

Blow, trumpeter, free and clear -- I follow thee,

While at thy liquid prelude, glad, serene,

The fretting world, the streets, the noisy hours of day, withdraw;

A holy calm descends, like dew, upon me,

I walk, in cool refreshing night, the walks of Paradise,

I scent the grass, the moist air, and the roses;

Thy song expands my numb'd, imbonded spirit -- thou freest, launchest me,

Floating and basking upon Heaven's lake.

Blow again, trumpeter! and for my sensuous eyes,

Bring the old pageants -- show the feudal world.

What charm thy music works! -- thou makest pass before me,

Ladies and cavaliers long dead -- barons are in their castle halls --

the troubadours are singing;

Arm'd knights go forth to redress wrongs -- some in quest of the Holy Grail:

I see the tournament -- I see the contestants, encased in heavy armor,

seated on stately, champing horses;

I hear the shouts -- the sounds of blows and smiting steel:

I see the Crusaders' tumultuous armies -- Hark! how the cymbals clang!

Lo! where the monks walk in advance, bearing the cross on high!]

Blow again, trumpeter! and for thy theme,

Take now the enclosing theme of all -- the solvent and the setting;

Love, that is pulse of all -- the sustenace and the pang;

The heart of man and woman all for love;

No other theme but love -- knitting, enclosing, all-diffusing love.

O, how the immortal phantoms crowd around me!

I see the vast alembic ever working -- I see and know the flames that heat the world;

The glow, the blush, the beating hearts of lovers,

So blissful happy some -- and some so silent, dark, and nigh to death:

Love, that is all the earth to lovers -- Love, that mocks time and space;

Love, that is day and night -- Love, that is sun and moon and stars;

Love, that is crimson, sumptuous, sick with perfume;

No other words, but words of love -- no other thought but Love.

Blow again, trumpeter -- conjure war's Wild alarums.

Swift to thy spell, a shuddering hum like distant thunder rolls;

Lo! where the arm'd men hasten -- Lo! mid the clouds of dust, the glint of bayonets;

I see the grime-faced cannoniers -- I mark the rosy flash amid the smoke --

I hear the cracking of the guns:

[ -- Nor war alone -- thy fearful music-song, wild player, brings every sight of fear,

The deeds of ruthless brigands -- rapine, murder -- I hear the cries for help!

SYSTEMI see ships foundering at sea -- I behold on deck, and below deck, the terrible tableaux.]

O trumpeter! methinks I am myself the instrument thou playest!

Thou melt'st my heart, my brain -- thou movest, drawest, changest them, at will:

And now thy sullen notes send darkness through me;

Thou takest away all cheering light -- all hope:

[I see the enslaved, the overthrown, the hurt, the opprest of the whole earth;

I feel the measureless shame and humiliation of my race -- it becomes all mine;

Mine too the revenges of humanity -- the wrongs of ages -- baffled feuds and hatreds;]

Utter defeat upon me weighs -- all lost! the foe victorious!

(Yet 'mid the ruins Pride colossal stands, unshaken to the last;

Endurance, resolution, to the last.)

Now, trumpeter, for thy close,

Vouchsafe a higher strain than any yet;

Sing to my soul -- renew its languishing faith and hope;

Rouse up my slow belief -- give me some vision of the future;

Give me, for once, its prophecy and joy.

O glad, exulting, culminating song!

A vigor more than earth's is in thy notes!

Marches of victory -- man disenthrall'd -- the conqueror at last!

Hymns to the universal God, from universal Man -- all joy!

A reborn race appears -- a perfect World, all joy!

Women and Men, in wisdom, innocence and health -- all joy!

Riotous, laughing bacchanals, fill'd with joy!

War, sorrow, suffering gone -- The rank earth purged -- nothing but joy left!

The ocean fill'd with joy -- the atmosphere all joy!

Joy! Joy! in freedom, worship, love! Joy in the ecstacy of life!

Enough to merely be! Enough to breathe!

Joy! Joy! all over Joy!