Storm-Music

O Music hast thou only heardThe laughing river, the singing bird,The murmuring wind in the poplar-trees,--Nothing but Nature's melodies?Nay, thou hearest all her tones,As a Queen must hear!Sounds of wrath and fear,Mutterings, shouts, and moans,Madness, tumult, and despair,--All she has that shakes the airWith voices fierce and wild!Thou art a Queen and not a dreaming child,--Put on thy crown and let us hear thee reignTriumphant in a world of storm and strain!

Echo the long-drawn sighsOf the mounting wind in the pines;And the sobs of the mounting waves that riseIn the dark of the troubled deepTo break on the beach in fiery lines.Echo the far-off roll of thunder,Rumbling loudAnd ever louder, underThe blue-black curtain of cloud,Where the lightning serpents gleam.Echo the moaningOf the forest in its sleepLike a giant groaningIn the torment of a dream.

Now an interval of quietFor a moment holds the airIn the breathless hushOf a silent prayer.

Then the sudden rushOf the rain, and the riotOf the shrieking, tearing galeBreaks loose in the night,With a fusillade of hail!Hear the forest fight,With its tossing arms that crack and clashIn the thunder's cannonade,While the lightning's forked flashBrings the old hero-trees to the ground with a crash!Hear the breakers' deepening roar,Driven like a herd of cattleIn the wild stampede of battle,Trampling, trampling, trampling, to overwhelm the shore!

Is it the end of all?Will the land crumble and fall?Nay, for a voice repliesOut of the hidden skies,"Thus far, O sea, shalt thou go,So long, O wind, shalt thou blow:Return to your bounds and cease,And let the earth have peace!"

O Music, lead the way--The stormy night is past,Lift up our hearts to greet the day,And the joy of things that last.

The dissonance and painThat mortals must endure,Are changed in thine immortal strainTo something great and pure.

True love will conquer strife,And strength from conflict flows,For discord is the thorn of lifeAnd harmony the rose.