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TO A LADY PLAYING ON THE CITHERN by James Russell Lowell

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A man listens to a young woman play the cithern, a stringed instrument, and the music transports him back in time, making him forget the dull weight of the present.

Poet
James Russell Lowell
Themes
beauty, memory, time
The PoemFull text

TO A LADY PLAYING ON THE CITHERN

James Russell Lowell

So dreamy-soft the notes, so far away They seem to fall, the horns of Oberon Blow their faint Hunt's-up from the good-time gone; Or, on a morning of long-withered May, Larks tinkle unseen o'er Claudian arches gray, That Romeward crawl from Dreamland; and anon My fancy flings her cloak of Darkness on, To vanish from the dungeon of To-day. In happier times and scenes I seem to be, And, as her fingers flutter o'er the strings, The days return when I was young as she, And my fledged thoughts began to feel their wings With all Heaven's blue before them: Memory Or Music is it such enchantment sings?

Public domain

Sourced from Project Gutenberg

§01Quick summary

What this poem is about

A man listens to a young woman play the cithern, a stringed instrument, and the music transports him back in time, making him forget the dull weight of the present. The sound brings to mind fairy horns, ancient Roman ruins, and the sensation of youth, filled with endless possibilities. By the final notes, he truly wonders if it’s the memory or the music creating the magic — but ultimately, he decides it doesn’t matter, because the spell feels real.

§02Themes

Recurring themes

§03Line by line

Stanza by stanza, with notes

  1. So dreamy-soft the notes, so far away / They seem to fall, the horns of Oberon

    Editor's note

    The octave (the first eight lines) of this Petrarchan sonnet captures the trance-like effect of the music. Lowell goes straight for the supernatural: the notes don’t just seem distant; they echo like the hunting horns of Oberon, the fairy king, calling from a bygone golden age. The term "Hunt's-up" refers to an actual Elizabethan tune played at dawn to rouse hunters, making the music feel both ancient and awakening. Then, the image shifts to larks singing above crumbling Roman aqueducts on a May morning, with those arches literally “crawling” from Dreamland toward Rome. The octave ends with the speaker’s imagination donning a “cloak of Darkness” — a fairy-tale kind of invisibility — to escape “the dungeon of To-day.” Here, the present feels like a prison, and the music serves as the key.

  2. In happier times and scenes I seem to be, / And, as her fingers flutter o'er the strings,

    Editor's note

    The sestet, which consists of the final six lines, brings the vision home and adds a personal touch. The speaker shifts from a mythic landscape back to his own youth, where he watches the player's fingers and feels his younger self awaken. "Fledged thoughts" refer to thoughts that have just gained their wings and are ready to soar, while "all Heaven's blue before them" evokes a sense of an infinite sky filled with possibilities. The closing question—whether it’s Memory or Music that creates this enchantment—serves as the emotional core of the poem. Lowell leaves it unanswered, which feels right: in this moment, the two elements are so intertwined that trying to separate them would ruin the magic.

§04Tone & mood

How this poem feels

The tone feels both wistful and dreamy, yet avoids being mournful. There’s a true joy in the imagery—fairy horns, larks, and Roman ruins—and the speaker seems more enchanted than sorrowful. The only hint of bitterness comes from the phrase "the dungeon of To-day," suggesting that the present feels burdensome, but the poem quickly moves past that. It hurries toward wonder instead.

§05Symbols & metaphors

Symbols & metaphors

The cithern / music
The instrument drives the entire poem. Music isn't just a nice sound here — it's a time machine, a way to escape the present, and by the final line, it blends almost seamlessly with memory itself.
Horns of Oberon
Oberon is the fairy king in Shakespeare's *A Midsummer Night's Dream*, and the sound of his hunting horns hints at a magical world that's just beyond our grasp. Calling upon him suggests that the music transcends the everyday — it belongs to a place where time flows in its own unique way.
Claudian arches
The Roman aqueducts constructed under Emperor Claudius continue to span the Roman Campagna. For a 19th-century poet, they represented the distant past, the splendor of civilization, and the allure of decay — these ruins link the present to a world that has vanished, much like the music does.
Cloak of Darkness
A fairy-tale invisibility cloak. The speaker’s imagination employs it to sneak away from the present without being seen. It emphasizes the notion that getting away from "To-day" demands a touch of magic.
Fledged thoughts
Young birds have just grown their flight feathers. This image perfectly captures that feeling of early adulthood when ideas and ambitions are fresh, and the future seems full of possibilities — a stark contrast to the "dungeon" the speaker currently finds themselves in.
Heaven's blue
The open sky above the fresh ideas represents endless possibilities, conveying a sense that nothing is yet closed off or limited — a feeling the speaker has lost but that the music brings back, if only for a moment.

§06Historical context

Historical context

James Russell Lowell penned this poem in the mid-19th century, a time when the Petrarchan sonnet was regaining popularity among American and British poets influenced by Romantic ideals. Lowell, who received his education from Harvard, was a poet, critic, and later a diplomat who grew up in a literary Boston that admired European culture. This admiration explains his references to Shakespearean fairy tales and Roman ruins. The cithern (also known as cittern) was a wire-strung instrument that gained fame from the Renaissance until the 18th century, and by Lowell's era, it evoked a sense of old-world charm. The poem belongs to a genre of "music poems" — works that leverage a performance to spark memory and introspection — stretching from the Romantics to the Victorians. Lowell experienced personal losses and societal pressures in his life, and the desire to escape "the dungeon of To-day" likely reflects his own struggles, although the poem's tone remains light enough to resonate universally.

§07FAQ

Questions readers ask

A cithern (or cittern) is a wire-strung instrument resembling a guitar, which was popular in Europe from the 1500s to the 1700s. By the time of Lowell, it had become old-fashioned enough to evoke a sense of romance and aristocracy, fitting the mood of the poem perfectly.

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