On Hearing A Sonata Of Beethoven's Played In The Next Room

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Unseen Musician, thou art sure to please,
  For those same notes in happier days I heard
Poured by dear hands that long have never stirred
  Yet now again for me delight the keys:
Ah me, to strong illusions such as these
  What are Life's solid things? The walls that gird
Our senses, lo, a casual scent or word
  Levels, and it is the soul that hears and sees!
Play on, dear girl, and many be the years
  Ere some grayhaired survivor sit like me
And, for thy largess pay a meed of tears
  Unto another who, beyond the sea
Of Time and Change, perhaps not sadly hears
  A music in this verse undreamed by thee!

© James Russell Lowell