A Song for St. Cecilia's Day - John Dryden

No, it's not St. Cecilia's Day today, but I didn't want to wait till November to post this one.  :)  It's a poem in celebration of music, and sections 3-7 are especially awesome in their sound-effects as Dryden evokes the sounds of various musical instruments.  In the first stanza, he describes the role music played in the world's creation; in the last one, he talks about its role in earth's final days.


A Song for St. Cecilia's Day

Stanza 1

From harmony, from Heavenly harmony

               This 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 harmony

Through all the compass of the notes it ran,

       The diapason closing full in man.

Stanza 2

What passion cannot music raise and quell!

                When Jubal struck the corded shell,

         His listening brethren stood around

         And wondering, on their faces fell

         To worship that celestial sound:

Less than a god they thought there could not dwell

                Within the hollow of that shell

                That spoke so sweetly and so well.

What passion cannot music raise and quell!

Stanza 3

         The trumpet's loud clangor

                Excites us to arms

         With shrill notes of anger

                        And mortal alarms.

         The double double double beat

                Of the thund'ring drum

         Cries, "Hark the foes come;

Charge, charge, 'tis too late to retreat."

Stanza 4

         The soft complaining flute

         In dying notes discovers

         The woes of hopeless lovers,

Whose dirge is whispered by the warbling lute.

Stanza 5

         Sharp violins proclaim

Their jealous pangs, and desperation,

Fury, frantic indignation,

Depth of pains and height of passion,

         For the fair, disdainful dame.

Stanza 6

But oh! what art can teach

         What human voice can reach

The sacred organ's praise?

Notes inspiring holy love,

Notes that wing their Heavenly ways

         To mend the choirs above.

Stanza 7

Orpheus could lead the savage race;

And trees unrooted left their place;

                Sequacious of the lyre:

But bright Cecilia raised the wonder higher;

         When to her organ, vocal breath was given,

An angel heard, and straight appeared

                Mistaking earth for Heaven.

GRAND CHORUS

As from the power of sacred lays

         The spheres began to move,

And sung the great Creator's praise

         To all the blest above;

So when the last and dreadful hour

   This crumbling pageant shall devour,

The trumpet shall be heard on high,

         The dead shall live, the living die,

         And music shall untune the sky.