Page:Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics.djvu/64

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SONG FOR SAINT CECILIA’S DAY, 1687

From Harmony, from heavenly HarmonyThis universal frame began:When Nature underneath a heap Of jarring atoms lay And could not heave her head, The tuneful voice was heard from high Arise, ye more than dead! Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry In order to their stations leap. And Music’s power obey. From harmony, from heavenly harmony This universal frame began: From harmony to harmonyThrough all the compass of the notes it ran,The diapason closing full in Man.
What passion cannot Music raise and quell?When Jubal struck the chorded shellHis listening brethren stood around,And, wondering, on their faces fellTo worship that celestial sound.Less than a God they thought there could not dwellWithin the hollow of that shellThat spoke so sweetly and so well.What passion cannot Music raise and quell?
The trumpet’s loud clangor Excites us to arms,With shrill notes of anger And mortal alarms.The double double double beat Of the thundering drum Cries ‘Hark ! the foes come; Charge, charge, ’tis too late to retreat!’
The soft complaining flute In dying notes discovers
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