In this suave pause of music the rich air
Throbs with a breathless deep expectancy
Of mingling momently with melody,
Dark wine in water reeling rosy-rare.
Beneath the hands of the enraptured player
The cadence of rithmic silence pulses by,
Till viol and voice, light birds soft-poised to fly,
Tremble to life, like wind-touched sunlit hair.
As a cool charm of tinkling water calls
From some old shady garden in hot noons,
The clavichord's slow-plashing intervals
Through the hushed chamber drop their moon-clear tones;
Their calm of music down the long years falls,
The golden voice of silence in crystal swoons.