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Thus to be lost and thus to sink and die,
Perchance were death indeed!-Constancia, turn.
In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie
Even though the sounds which were thy voice
Which burn between thy lips are laid to sleep;
Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odor it is yet,
And from thy touch like fire doth leap.
Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet,
Alas that the torn heart can bleed, but not forget.

A breathless awe, like the swift change unseen, but felt in youthful slumbers,
Wild, sweet but communicably strange,
Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers.
The cope of heaven seems rent and closer,
By the enchantment of thy strain,
And on my shoulders wings are woven
To follow its sublime career,
Beyond the mighty moons that wane
Upon the verge of Nature’s utmost sphere,
Till the world’s shadowy walls are past and disappear.

Her voice is hovering on my soul— it lingers
O’ershadowing it with soft and lulling wings;
The blood and life within those snow fingers
Teach witchcraft to the instrumental strings;
My brain is wild, my breath comes quick,
The blood is listening in my frame
And throwing shadows, fast and thick
Fall on my overflowing eyes;
My heart is quivering like a flame
As morning dew that in the sunbeam dies,
I am dissolved in these consuming ecstasies. ###

FIRST STANZA: The speaker urges Constancia to “turn” away from her sadness by focusing on her song , impliedly because if singing is constantly engaged in, it could be an ideal come true— it has the effect of light which brings fire to her eyes, breath and lips, and lingers even in her hair and her fingers; also it lingers like  sweet odor. The persona is simply swept away. Her beauty and music being one, she makes his heart bleed, probably remembering a sad episode in his life.

SECOND STANZA: The song, sung in breathless crescendo, enchants the persona— he feels he is sprouting wings like an angel flying “beyond the mighty moons” outside of Planet Earth — a divine trip to Heaven on the wings of the imagination.

THIRD STANZA: The song lingers in his soul— his mind turns “wild”; his breath “comes quick” ; his blood “listens” as it throbs to the music  and burns his soul.  Finally he becomes like dew that dissolves with the sunbeams as he is consumed with ecstasy. ###