Hear, O hear:
They were as the welling waters,
Sound, swift, clear,
They were all the running waters’
Music down the greenest valley.
Might words tell
What an echo sang within me?
What proud bell
Clangs the note that rang within me
Then to be with those enlisted?
When they smiled,
Earth’s inferno changed and melted –
Greenwood mild;
Every village where they halted
Shone with them through square and alley.
Now my mind
Faint and few records their showing,
Brave, strong, kind –
I’d unlock you all their doings
But the keys are lost and twisted.
This still grows,
Through my land or dull or dazzling
Their spring flows;
But to think of them’s a fountain,
Tears of joy and music’s rally.