Edward Shanks describes a singer performing in a warm, dim room lit by a golden lamp. As she sings, the speaker stops noticing the physical space and feels surrounded entirely by music. The songs are compared to rising colored bubbles and birds with shining wings, which gives the moment a delicate, dreamlike quality. The piano keys are “merry or plaintive,” so the music carries both happiness and sadness, but the effect is soothing and hypnotic. The listener feels the room disappear, leaving only sound. In the final lines, the singer’s voice becomes a stream of delicate bubbles, each one colored by a different melody. The mood is intimate, glowing, and slightly enchanted, as if the speaker is watching something beautiful and fragile float upward into the dim air.
The Singer — Summary
In the dim light of the golden lamp The singer stands and sings, And the songs rise up like coloured bubbles Or birds with shining wings. And the movement of the merry or plaintive keys Sounds in the silent air Till the listener feels the room no more But only music there. And still from the sweet and rounded mouth The delicate songs arise, Like floating bubbles whose colours are The coloured melodies.