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Updated: June 29, 2025
Lying on his belly in the grass where creatures swarmed, in the shade of the trees that buzzed with insects, Christophe would watch the fevered movements of the ants, the long-legged spiders, that seemed to dance as they walked, the bounding grasshoppers, that leap aside, the heavy, bustling beetles, and the naked worms, pink and glabrous, mottled with white, or with his hands under his head and his eyes dosed he would listen to the invisible orchestra, the roundelay of the frenzied insects circling in a sunbeam about the scented pines, the trumpeting of the mosquitoes, the organ, notes of the wasps, the brass of the wild bees humming like bells in the tops of the trees, and the godlike whispering of the swaying trees, the sweet moaning of the wind in the branches, the soft whispering of the waving grass, like a breath of wind rippling the limpid surface of a lake, like the rustling of a light dress and lovers footsteps coming near, and passing, then lost upon the air.
"Listen, ye wild woods, to my roundelay; Since the fair nymph will hear not, though I pray. The lovely nymph is deaf to my lament, Nor heeds the music of this rustic reed; Wherefore my flocks and herds are ill content, Nor bathe the hoof where grows the water weed, Nor touch the tender herbage on the mead; So sad because their shepherd grieves are they." There are four stanzas.
In a cracked and tuneless voice he began humming a roundelay, evidently intended to express gaiety and contentment. Unable longer to withstand his gnawing hunger, Tom secured for himself a large round hardtack, and with this he tried to ward off the pangs of starvation. But he had small success with the endeavor, for his teeth were poor.
The gull goes a-flying in his own way and the mocking-bird sits a-singing his roundelay, original or imitated, just as it comes to him; and neither of them is angry or depressed when a critic makes odious comparisons, because they are both doing the best that they know with "a whole and happy heart." Not so with poets, orators, and other human professors of the high-flying and cantatory arts.
Sing now yourselves the song, the name of which is "Once more," the signification of which is "Unto all eternity!" sing, ye higher men, Zarathustra's roundelay! O man! Take heed! What saith deep midnight's voice indeed? "I slept my sleep , "From deepest dream I've woke, and plead: "The world is deep, "And deeper than the day could read.
"In days when daisies deck the ground, And blackbirds whistle clear, With honest joy our hearts will bound To see the coming year" sings Burns. I suspect that the English reader of even some of Emerson's and Lowell's poems would infer that our blackbird was identical with the British species. I refer to these lines of Emerson: "Where arches green the livelong day Echo the blackbirds' roundelay;"
But God meant music; and we may, If we will keep our lives in tune, Hear the whole year sing roundelay, December answering June. God ever at his keyboard plays, Harmonics, right; and discords, wrong: "He that hath ears," and who obeys, May hear the mystic song.
There are, besides, a "Lyric Finale" to a sonata not yet written, and several songs for violin, voice, and piano. A suite for four hands, "In Summer Fields," contains some happy manifestations of ability, such as "A June Roundelay," "The Dryad's Grove," and, especially, a humoresque "Junketing," which is surely destined to become a classic.
Then the sweet childish voice rang out once more: "Oh, dear beyond our dearest dreams, Fairer than all that fairest seems! To feast the rosy hours away, To revel in a roundelay! How blest would be A life so free Ipwergis-Pudding to consume, And drink the subtle Azzigoom!
I will kill you, if need be, should you try to force him on me. Now, father, we understand each other. At least you cannot fail to understand me. For the last time I warn you. Beware of me." She gently pushed the chair back from the table, quietly adjusted the sleeve which she had drawn upward from her wrist, and slowly walked out of the room, softly humming the refrain of a roundelay.
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