MERLIN'S SONG.
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f Merlin wise I learned a song,--Sing it low or sing it loud,It is mightier than the strong,And punishes the proud.I sing it to the surging crowd,--Good men it will calm and cheer,Bad men it will chain and cage.In the heart of the music peals a strainWhich only angels hear;Whether it waken joy or rage,Hushed myriads hark in vain,Yet they who hear it shed their age,And take their youth again. THE TEST. (Musa loquitur.) I hung my verses in the wind,Time and tide their faults may find.All were winnowed through and through,Five lines lasted sound and true;Five were smelted in a potThan the South more fierce and hot;These the siroc could not melt,Fire their fiercer flaming felt,And the meaning was more whiteThan July's meridian light.Sunshine cannot bleach the snow,Nor time unmake what poets know.Have you eyes to find the fiveWhich five hundred did survive?
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