An Ode Written for Music

Power eternal, power unknown, uncreate:Force of force, fate of fate.

Beauty and light are thy seeing,Wisdom and right thy decreeing,Life of life is thy being.In the smile of thine infinite starry gleam,Without beginning or end,Measure or number,Beyond time and space,Without foe or friend,In the void of thy formless embrace,All things pass as a dreamOf thine unbroken slumber.

Gloom and the night are thine:On the face of thy mirror darkness and terror,The smoke of thy blood, the frost of thy breath.

In silence and woful aweThy harrying angels of deathDestroy whate'er thou makest--Makest, destroyest, destroyest and makest.Thy gems of life thou dost squander,Their virginal beauty givest to plunder,Doomest to uttermost regions of age-long iceTo starve and expire:Consumest with glance of fire,Or back to confusion shakestWith earthquake, elemental storm and thunder.

In ways of beauty and peaceFair desire, companion of man,Leadeth the children of earth.

As when the storm doth cease,The loving sun the clouds dispelleth,And woodland walks are sweet in spring;The birds they merrily singAnd every flower-bud swelleth.Or where the heav'ns o'erspanThe lonely downsWhen summer is high:Below their breezy crownsAnd grassy steepSpreadeth the infinite smile of the sunlit sea;Whereon the white ships swim,And steal to havens farAcross the horizon dim,Or lie becalm'd upon the windless deep,Like thoughts of beauty and peace,When the storm doth cease,And fair desire, companion of man,Leadeth the children of earth.

Man, born to toil, in his labour rejoiceth;His voice is heard in the morn:He armeth his hand and sallieth forthTo engage with the generous teeming earth,And drinks from the rocky rillsThe laughter of life.

Or else, in crowded cities gathering close,He traffics morn and eveIn thronging market-halls;Or within echoing wallsOf busy arsenalsWeldeth the stubborn iron to engines vast;Or tends the thousand loomsWhere, with black smoke o'ercast,The land mourns in deep glooms.

Life is toil, and life is good:There in loving brotherhoodBeateth the nation's heart of fire.Strife! Strife! The strife is strong!There battle thought and voice, and spirits conspireIn joyous dance around the tree of life,And from the ringing choirRiseth the praise of God from hearts in tuneful song.

Hark! What spirit doth entreatThe love-obedient air?All the pomp of his delightRevels on the ravisht night,Wandering wilful, soaring fair:There! 'Tis there, 'tis there.Like a flower of primal fireLate redeem'd by man's desire.

Away, on wings awayMy spirit far hath flown,To a land of love and peace,Of beauty unknown.The world that earth-born man,By evil undismay'd,Out of the breath of GodHath for his heaven made.

Where all his dreams soe'erOf holy things and fairIn splendour are upgrown,Which thro' the toilsome yearsMartyrs and faithful seersAnd poets with holy tearsOf hope have sown.

There, beyond power of ill,In joy and blessing crown'd,Christ with His lamp of truthSitteth upon the hillOf everlasting youth,And calls His saints around.

Sweet compassionate tearsHave dimm'd my earthly sight,Tears of love, the showers wherewithThe eternal morn is bright:Dews of the heav'nly spheres.With tears my eyes are wet,Tears not of vain regret,Tears of no lost delight,Dews of the heav'nly spheresHave dimm'd my earthly sight,Sweet compassionate tears.

Gird on thy sword, O man, thy strength endue,In fair desire thine earth-born joy renew.Live thou thy life beneath the making sunTill Beauty, Truth, and Love in thee are one.

Thro' thousand ages hath thy childhood run:On timeless ruin hath thy glory been:From the forgotten night of loves fordoneThou risest in the dawn of hopes unseen.

Higher and higher shall thy thoughts aspire,Unto the stars of heaven, and pass away,And earth renew the buds of thy desireIn fleeting blooms of everlasting day.

Thy work with beauty crown, thy life with love;Thy mind with truth uplift to God above:For whom all is, from whom was all begun,In whom all Beauty, Truth, and Love are one.