Where Cleanest Beauty Flies
“Youths and maidens all blyhe and full of glee, carried the
luscious fruit in plaited baskets; and with them there went a
boy who made sweet music with his lyre, and sang the
Linos-song with clear boyish voice.”
~ Samuel Butler’s English version of The Iliad, Book XVIII)
Before the voices in the English choirs
Of churches and cathedrals, there was sound
As pure as heaven’s see-through streets, then spires
Of Oxford singing, and its chapels crowned
Within by treble obligatos there
Above in fan-like carvings in white stone,
Just like the colored bosses in the air,
The air made lovely by that realm of tone,
The air made holy by that purity
Of melody above the other parts
Of lower, underpinned maturity.
Since ancient times this highness reached our hearts.
..The early Greeks and Anglicans each learned
….Where tallest sounding lovelinesses burned.