Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony

       Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony

Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony

This last and greatest composition floods

    Emotions through the caverns of my sense

        As when high spring-tides swell to full expanse

    Of their majestic reach. All human moods

Are touchingly evoked through these deep themes

    Which thrill the ultimate extremes my mind

        Can apprehend. For in this work I find

    Compressed, and thus intensified like dreams,

Those strong sensations which make life to be

    So bitter-sweet for all of us: the calm

        Of satisfaction, glory’s pride, the balm

    Of beauty, trust of hope, despair’s débris

All blent together with such passion and such art

Tears spring from eyes burst by the fierce grasp of my heart.