Oh, happy, sad, mysterious, wondrous soul!
Imprisoned in a living dungeon deep
The fates have bound thee; but they can not keep
For ay that spirit in their dark control
Who hear'st the music of the spheres that roll
Through silent time; those beauteous orbs that sweep
Through space and glitter in the boundless deep,
Will yet thy blind, benighted life console.
What sin didst thou commit, or whom offend?
That doomed thee to a carnal cell so gross
That scarce a hint of what thou really art
Has ever reached the world,— who couldst transcend
In matchless music, purged of all thy dross,
The great Beethoven or divine Mozart.