** EVE'S LAMENTATION ** 279 



It remains to ask if this perfect union of music 

 and poetry is ever found in the higher stages of 

 these arts. We have seen that music is not, and 

 cannot, legitimately, be married to immortal verse; 

 but the union is possible, and perhaps frequent, 

 between great music and the simple poetry that is 

 nearest to emotional speech. I recall King's Eve^s 

 Lamentation as a good example, and it occurs to me 

 after speaking of this folk-song, because the lament 

 in both instances is inspired by a similar feeling. 

 The words, the poetry, set to the great music are 

 simple enough — "Must I leave thee. Paradise!" — 

 and that cry of the heart is in both words and music, 

 and is ingeminated, and grows, until, in the last 

 abandonment of grief, it rises to the final heart-broken 

 and heart-piercing note. 



The theme is the same — the everlasting farewell 

 to Paradise in one case, and to earth and life in the 

 other — and the difference is that between an art in 

 its early undeveloped stage, and in its full develop- 

 ment. One, nearer to the common earth in the 

 close resemblance of the notes to the very sounds of 

 lament with tears; the other, with the same sounds 

 cleansed of their earthiness — sublimated, glorified, 

 by a great art. 



