Music In The Pavilion

Faces that throng and stare and come and go-- The air a-quiver as the voices meet; And loud Humanity in mingled flow Passes with jarring tread of many feet.

But over all the chatter of the crowd (The background for its delicate relief) Now trembling in a thread, now wild and loud, The violin laughs and sings, and cries its grief.

Then, through it all, and round it all, the sea; A solemn heart with never-ceasing beat, Bearing an undertone of mystery The harsh and lovely notes, the shrill and sweet.

Surely it is my life--of plodding days, With one Ideal holding clear and good; And sounding over, under, through my ways, Something apart--and never understood.