Story of the Flute
"But presentlyA velvet flute-note fell down pleasantlyUpon the bosom of that harmony,And sailed and sailed incessantly,As if a petal from a wild rose blownHad fluttered down upon that pool of tone.And boat-wise dropped o' the convex sideAnd floated down the glassy tide,And clarified and glorifiedThe solemn spaces where the shadows bide.From the warm concave of that fluted noteSomewhat, half song, half odour, forth did float,As if a rose might somehow be a throat.When Nature from her far-off glenFlutes her soft messages to men,The flute can say them o'er again;Yea, Nature, singing sweet and lone.Breathes through life's strident polyphoneThe flute-voice in the world of tone."
A commemoration of Lanier was held in the John Hopkins University in February 1888, at which the poet's flute and a roll of his MS. music were hung on a bronze bust of the poet. A little memorial volume was published to commemorate this event.
Another poet-flautist, Richard Yates Sturges, born in Birmingham in 1843, and known as "The Flute ofOtherLiterary
Flautists of Flutes," attained very considerable tone and technique. He died in Bristol in June 1910 Sturges was an enthusiastic Dante student. His poems are of very decided merit. Terschak set some of them to music, and dedicated his flute piece "Die Flammen von Surachani"
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