Harp Music –‘Softly, let – ‘

Softly, let the measure break

Till the dancers wake, and rise,

Lace their golden shoes, and turn

Toward the stars that burn their eyes.

Softly, let the measure flow,

Float in silver, and follow.

Softly, let the measure dwell

Slowly, as the spell is wound

Out and in, through space and time,

While the sandals rhyme the round.

Softly, let the measure stir,

Lift, subside, and go under.

Softly, let the measure prove

The bright cadence moving there

Changing, for unbroken dark,

The illumined arc of air.

Softly, let the measure be

Unheard, but never wholly.

(The alternative stanzas in old Welsh meters,

Awdl Gywydd, and Cywydd deuair hirion, respectively.)

Rolfe Humphries