Summary: As all is unknown.<br> -The Voice before the Void<br> “At the Piano”<br> Anna Katharine Green<br> Play on! Play on! As softly glides<br> The low refrain, I seem, I seem<br> To float, to float on golden tides,<br> By sunlit isles, where life and dream<br> Are one, are one; and hope and bliss<br> Move hand in hand, and thrilling, kiss<br> ‘Neath bowery blooms,<br> In twilight glooms,<br> And love is life, and life is love.<br> Play on! Play on! As higher rise<br> The lifted strains, I seem, I seem<br> To mount, to mount through roseate skies,<br> Through drifted cloud and golden gleam,<br> To realms, to realms of thought and fire,<br> Where angels walk and souls aspire,<br> And sorrow comes but as the night<br> That brings a star for our delight.<br> Play on! Play on! The spirit fails,<br> The star grows dim, the glory pales,<br> The depths are roused—the depths, and oh!<br> The heart that wakes, the hopes that glow!<br> The depths are roused: their billows call<br> The soul from heights to slip and fall;<br> To slip and fall and faint and be<br> Made part of their immensity;<br> To slip from Heaven; to fall and find<br> In love the only perfect mind;<br> To slip and fall and faint and be<br> Lost, drowned within this melody,<br> As life is lost and thought in thee.<br> Ah, sweet, art thou the star, the star<br> That draws my soul afar, afar?<br> Thy voice the silvery tide on which<br> I float to islands rare and rich?<br> Thy love the ocean, deep and strong,<br> In which my hopes and being long<br> To sink and faint and fail away?<br> I cannot know. I cannot say.<br> But play, play on.<br>
