The Text

There be none of Beauty’s daughters
With a magic like thee;
And like music on the waters;
Is thy voice to me;
When, as its sound were causing
The charmed ocean’s pausing,
The waves lie still and gleaming,
And the lulled winds seem dreaming:

And the midnight moon is weaving
Her bright chain o’er the deep;
Whose breast is gently heaving,
As an infant’s asleep;
So the spirit bows before thee;
To listen and adore thee,
With a full but soft emotion,
Like the swell f Summer’s ocean. #

Romantic Vision

“Stanzas for Music” is a tender song of praise and wonder for a lady whose magical beauty is particularly depicted in terms of her “sweet voice” and the effect that it has on the persona and nature.

The incomparable beauty of the maiden can only be magic: Her voice is “like music on the waters”, seemingly casting a spell on the ocean by making it pause, with the waves “lying still and gleaming”. The lady’s voice seems to make “the lulled winds dream”.

The succession of dreamlike images in the second stanza repeats the dream atmosphere in the first stanza. This atmosphere draws attention to the midnight moon’s “weaving/Her bright chain” over the ocean depths. The ocean is then described as a “gently heaving” breast akin to “an infant’s” in its sleep. Maintaining this image the poem then informs that the “spirit bows before thee” even as the spirit listens and adores her and her song “with a full but soft emotion”. The last two lines capture the romantic response which is one of speechless attention that seems to undergo expansion in the act of listening.

To the charmed poet the lady is a pleasant rhyme herself like a song or poem. One may just listen with rapt attention and lift up one’s heart to the full poetic or musical power as one builds up the emotion “like the swell of Summer‘s ocean.” ###