Vox Humana

By George Sterling

(To Humphrey J. Stewart at the Organ)

Riven with harmonies, I watched your hands
    Weave from the soundlessness their sounding spell.
    The music, with an ocean in its swell,
Broke wave by wave upon the spirit's strands,
And left me homesick for the ghostly Lands
    Where joys that died and deathless memories dwell.
    Regret was there, old voices of farewell,
And Love went lonely on those shadow-sands.

Time and eternity cried there their tale,
With throats of choral thunder and the wail
    Of archangelic sorrows told to Night.
        Slowly they sank, until I seemed to hear,
    Far-wafted from a Paradisal height,
        My mother's voice, remotely sad and clear.
Bibliography Entry