the blind girl harper
TRANSCRIPT
Irish Jesuit Province
The Blind Girl HarperAuthor(s): William O'NeillSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 33, No. 380 (Feb., 1905), p. 73Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20500735 .
Accessed: 17/06/2014 02:44
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
Irish Jesuit Province is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Irish Monthly.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 02:44:04 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
[ 73 ]
THE BLIND GIRL HARPER*
HER slender fingers sweeping o'er the strings
Make music sweeter than TEolian lyres
Awoke of old; her soul's imaginings
Now find expression in the trembling wires.
Her head is bowed in listening, for the sound Is echoed deep and low beyond the veil
That hides her eyes from visions of the ground.
God's wondrous sky, its sun and starlight pale.
There is an inward sight that comprehends
The essence of all beauty and its source, A spark of some celestial flame that sends
Its current through the breast with lightning force.
And so it is with her; the harmony
Of vibrant chords to all her senses speaks, Cleaves through her darkness with ecstatic glee,
Illumes her soul and mantles in her cheeks.
For, as the notes ascend, her face is lit
With joy that only such as she can know; The silent treasuries of thought that sit
Throned in her heart awaiting room to flow.
Burst into life impetuous, passionate And warm as love's unuttered dreamns of bliss
Till all her being at Elysium's gate
Stands mute and awed 'mid melody like this.
Fearing to pass the portal music-won, She falters lest her flight has been in vain
When lo ! the strains are hushed, the piece is dlonie, And she is poor and blind on earth again.
WILLILAM O'NEILL.
* Suggested by a concert given in the Rotunda, Dublin, by the gtrls of the Blind Asylum, Merrion, conducted by the Irish Sisters ot
Charity.
This content downloaded from 62.122.73.177 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 02:44:04 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions