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Steps of the Temple, a graceful tribute to Herbert, we have the congenial title,
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The Delights of the Muses,
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Untwisting all the chains that tie The hidden soul of harmony,
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Music's Duel. It is the story--a favorite one to the ears of our forefathers two centuries ago--of the nightingale and the musician contending with voice and instrument in alternate melodies, till the sweet songstress of the grove falls and dies upon the lute of her rapt rival. It is something more than a pretty tale. Ford, the dramatist, introduced it briefly in happy lines in
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The Lover's Melancholy, but Crashaw's verses inspire the very sweetness and lingering pleasure of the contest. It is high noon when the
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seeks retirement from the heat,
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by the bank of the Tiber. The
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The sweet inhabitant of each glad tree,
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which begins with a flying prelude, to which the lady of the tree
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with
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His nimble hand's instinct then taught each string, A cap'ring cheerfulness; and made them sing To their own dance.
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Trails her plain ditty in one long-spun note Through the sleek passage of her open throat: A clear, unwrinkled song.
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--the fane of Apollo suggesting in a word images of Greek maidens in chorus by the white temple of the God, the dew of Helicon, the soft waking of men from beneficent repose. It is all very well to talk of a bird doing all this: we admire nightingales, but Philomela never enchanted us in this way; it is the sex with which we are charmed. The poet's