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Symphonic Studies: Prelude

By Emma Lazarus (1849–1887)

(After Robert Schumann)

“Blue storm-clouds in hot heavens of mid-July

Hung heavy, brooding over land and sea:

Our hearts, a-tremble, throbbed in harmony

With the wild, restless tone of air and sky. 

 Shall we not call him Prospero who held

 In his enchanted hands the fateful key

 Of  that tempestuous hour’s mystery,

 And with controlling wand our spirits spelled,

 With him to wander by a sun-bright shore,

 To hear fine, fairy voices, and to fly

 With disembodied Ariel once more

 Above earth’s wrack and ruin? Far and nigh

 The laughter of the thunder echoed loud,

 And harmless lightnings leapt from cloud to cloud.”

Photo by Myra Lambino of storm clouds over Malibu Beach, California