When Music Sounds

When music sounds,
gone is the earth I know,
And all her lovely things
even lovelier grow;
even lovelier grow;
Her flowers in vision flame,
her forest trees
Lift burdened branches,
stilled, stilled, stilled with ecstasies.
When music sounds,
out of the water rise
Naiads whose beauty
dims my waking eyes,
Rapt in strange dreams
burns each enchanted face,
With solemn echoing, echoing, echoing…
stirs, stirs their dwelling-place.
When music sounds,
all that I was I am
Ere to this haunt
of brooding dust I came;
And from Time's woods
break into distant song
The swift-winged hours,
as I hasten along.
as I hasten along.