[‘And the angel Israfel, whose heart-strings are a lute, and who has the sweetest voice of all God’s creatures.’-Koran.]
FAIR Israfel, the sweetest singer of Heaven,
Shook back his burning curls, and from his seven
Stringed lute swept an impassioned prayer
So full of yearning that the very air
Celestial seemed surcharged with pleading love.
Importunate it throbbed and swelled above
Each diamond star-lit crevice of the skies
That oped to hearken, and from shimmering eyes
Let down their tear-spun rainbows for the song.
Eager it sped, and trembling pulsed along
Craving a shelter and a sanctuary
To weave anew on earth Heaven’s harmony.
The dying sun had laid his hand of splendour
Upon the watching lake. Burning, yet tender,
His parting kiss enraptured all the night.
A mystic barque seemed in the golden light
Like some pale ghostly moth, that flies away
With fluttering wings out-drooped from circling day.
Onward she came, borne by the music’s breath,
Unearthly as an image after death.
Rhythmic she swooned and dreamed,
And ever idly seemed
To float, as lilies float upon a stream
Whose slackened pulses halt awhile to dream.
Then to the soul of those whose eager ears
Were not clay-sealed, came music born of tears,
Far wing
(Marian Osborne)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Night Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Soul Poems, Heaven Poems, Dreams Poems, Angels Poems, Music Poems, Harmony PoemsBased on Keywords: koran, israfel, clay-sealed