Lyric Poem · Peace
Perplexed Music
1EXPERIENCE, like a pale musician, holds
2A dulcimer of patience in his hand,
3Whence harmonies, we cannot understand,
4Of God; will in his worlds, the strain unfolds
5In sad-perplexed minors: deathly colds
6Fall on us while we hear, and countermand
7Our sanguine heart back from the fancyland
8With nightingales in visionary wolds.
9We murmur ' Where is any certain tune
10Or measured music in such notes as these ? '
11But angels, leaning from the golden seat,
12Are not so minded their fine ear hath won
13The issue of completed cadences,
14And, smiling down the stars, they whisper —
15SWEET.
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“Perplexed Music” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning — quilloak.com/poems/perplexed-music
Quick facts
- Poem
- Perplexed Music
- Poet
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
- Length
- 15 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Peace, Love, Nature
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 15 lines · one 15-line stanza
- Line length
- Lines run 9-11 syllables (median 10), consistent with pentameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning1806–1861
- Source record
- PoetryDBPerplexed Music by elizabeth-barrett-browning, PoetryDB transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- Not recorded in the imported source
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 daef9c86aaab9392…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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