Celestial concord of divinest sounds,
Music has solaced all the years,
Smoothed the rough road for worn and tired feet,
And lulled the grievous pain, too deep for tears.
All my days it’s been a comfort unto me,
A subtle influence, chastening all life,
Lifting up despairing hope and trust once more,
Guiding past the hidden shoals of sin and strife.

As a boy, I heard it flooding all the fields,—
Nature’s songs appealing ever unto me—
Bird lays, and the soothing winds that steal away,
And the deep, eternal murmur of the sea.
I hear it in the harmony of the night,
When stars glow in the unfathomable deep,
And when the foliage and the nodding flowers,
Alike with all the world, are wrapt in sleep.

I hear it in the patter of the summer rain
That freshens all and cools the thirsty ground;
And in the thunder’s reverberating roar
I hear a harmony majestic and profound.
I hear it in the tiniest rivulet
That winds its laughing way by mead and lea,
Kissing the feet of sunny emerald hills,
And the glide of mighty rivers to the sea.

O voices! voices! singing, ever singing
In joyful, tender notes from day to day;
I hear the songs I love forever ringing—
Their echo and re-echo never dies away.
A thousand instruments seem ever playing—
Stringed instruments, reeds, lutes of sweetest tone—
Martial bands, and trumpets swelling ever,
Stir the hero, and the king upon his throne!

Play on! play on! all instruments of music,
Join all your voices in the ecstasy of song,
And the deep harmony of nature blending
Will elevate and purify the world’s vast throng.
If I should march to battle, play for me
The strains that lift the shrinking, doubting soul;
And when I cross the dark and fatal current,
Sing, and the Lethean waters shall not o’er me roll.