sweep thy sad strings?

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Wading through the chapter in the Marlows and their Maker that lists all the literary references, reminded me of the one I've always wanted to know the source of - and typically, its not listed.  So I'm hoping one of you literary types might know.

It's Peters Room, p55 of my Faber paperback, and they are roasting chestnuts in the Shippen and Ginty says it has a   
"sort of Great Hall feeling - the fire in front and everywhere else madly dark and cold."
"Like the sweep thy sad strings musican one," said Lawrie unexpectedly.  
Ginty agrees and says "we've even got the old hound whimpering in the corner"

Anyone any idea what this - poem, presumably - might be?

Comments

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Like an idiot, it did not occur to me that I could just google the line, until after I had posted this query! This would seem to be the poem - misquoted by Lawrie. It is Walter de la Mare:


"Sweep thy faint strings, Musician,
With thy long lean hand;
Downward the starry tapers burn,
Sinks soft the waning sand;
The old hound whimpers couched in sleep,
The embers smoulder low;
Across the walls the shadows
Come, and go.

Sweep softly thy strings, Musician,
The minutes mount to hours;
Frost on the windless casement weaves
A labyrinth of flowers;
Ghosts linger in the darkening air,
Hearken at the open door;
Music hath called them, dreaming,
Home once more."

[liadnan]

AF seems to have had a particular fondness for De La Mare.

[minniemoll.livejournal.com]

A quick google brings up this poem, by Walter de la Mare

'The Song of the Shadows'
Sweep thy faint strings, musician
With thy long, lean hand;
Downward the starry tapers burn,
Sinks soft the waning sand.
The old hound whimpers, couched in sleep,
The embers smoulder low;
Across the walls the shadows come and go.
Sweep softly thy strings, musician;
The minutes mount to hours.
Frost on the windless casement weaves
A labyrinth of flowers.
Ghosts linger in the darkening air,
Hearken at the open door,
Music has called them, dreaming, home once more.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I always used to wonder about this line every time I read the book, and I did once try searching for the source - unsuccessfully - but I guess it was in the pre-google, pre internet!, era.

[minniemoll.livejournal.com]

There was life before google.....???!!!

[lizarfaufics.livejournal.com]

The fact you have to Google on it is presumably the reason why it's not identified in The Marlows and Their Maker, given Anne Heazlewood doesn't have a computer.

[nzraya.livejournal.com]

That's just....wrong. O_O

'The Song of the Shadows'

[(Anonymous)]

I remember singing the following so it has been set to music - Lawrie may have heard it as such or just read it in a De La Mare collection. http://www.sirgeorgetrevelyan.org.uk/tht-livingword.html Now let us take this delicate and outwardly simple poem by WALTER de Ia MARE. 'The Song of the Shadows' Sweep thy faint strings, musician With thy long, lean hand; Downward the starry tapers burn, Sinks soft the waning sand. The old hound whimpers, couched in sleep, The embers smoulder low; Across the walls the shadows come and go. Sweep softly thy strings, musician; The minutes mount to hours. Frost on the windless casement weaves A labyrinth of flowers. Ghosts linger in the darkening air, Hearken at the open door, Music has called them, dreaming, home once more.