On Hearing a Symphony of BeethovenEnglish Poems Index
On Hearing a Symphony of Beethoven :
Sweets sounds, Oh, beautiful music, do not cease!
Reject me not into the world again.
With you alone is excellence and peace,
Mankind made plausible, his purpose plain
Enchanted in your air benign and shrewd,
With limbs a-sprawl and empty faces pale,
The spiteful and the stingy and rude
Sleep like the scullions in the fairy - tale.
This moment is the best the world can give:
The tranquil blossom on the tortured stem.
Reject me not, sweet sounds; oh, let me live,
Till Doom espy my towers and scatter them,
A city spell-bound under the aging Sun.
Music my rampart, and my only one.
By Edna St. Vincent Millay
About The Poet :
Edna St. Vincent Millay, a Pulitzer Prize winner, is an American poet.
Words to Know :
Plausible : reasonable and likely to be true
Benign : gentle
A-sprawl : lying or sitting with one's arms or legs stretched out
Spiteful : nasty / disapproving
Scullions : boys employed to work in a kitchen
Tranquil : calm
Doom : death
Espy : see suddenly
Rampart : a wide pile of earth or a stone-wall built to protect a castle or city
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