RODIN

XI

AN INCIDENT (RUEDE L'UNIVERSITÉ)

Published in the Weekly Critical Review

Paris, France

6 August 1903

(page 56)

Spell-bound we sat: the vivid violin

Wailed, pleaded, waited, triumphed. Kingly note

By note imperial from its passionate throat

Vibrates; the shadows fall like pauses in

The workshop of the Master: where there spin

Phrases in marble: fancies fall or float,

Passions exult, despairs abound, loves dote,

Thoughts gallop or abide: and prayer is sin.

Spell-bound we sat; one, young, eagerly moves.

One sits in thought: one listens, dreams, and loves.

One, critical, approves with conscious nod.

But I abode without the spell; saw these—

Diverse harmonics of identical keys!—

And these were thus: but Rodin heard like God.