Read "The Seven-Stringed Mountain Lute" by Edwina Stanton Babcock online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Homer, Sappho, Anacreon, Pindar, Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, the / very names are a song. " -- M. C. M.
I knew, no matter how they plucked at me / Like golden fingers -- all those cadenced names -- / That never could I answer; for the power / Of their majestic harmonies was perfect flower. / No greater song, nor lovelier verse could be / Unless Greece lived another golden hour. / I tried to echo them. I vainly sought / Timid expression of their rhythmic fire; / My melodies with halting effort caught / Faintly their classic motive and desire. / Yet, while I failed, a miracle was wrought, / Themselves did sing! Thus, humble, I was taught / These names that are the plectrum and the lyre.