Hidden Music

There came a stream of music on my ear
From the dark centre of an aged wood,

Now muffled deep, and now ecstatic clear,
Bright as a prophecy of coming good.

I knew not, and I did not care to know,
What voice or what mechanic instrument

Utter'd the sounds, whose never-ending flow
Sustained my soul in such sublime content.

'Twas no small, light, and self-repeating air,
The close we guess before 'tis well begun ;

'Twas the united voice of everywhere.
Past, present, future, all in unison

It was a strain might usher in the birth
Of human life, and soothe its earliest cry.

And sound the last farewell to mother earth,
When souls for heaven mature are glad to fly.

All elements of sound, and all the wealth
Of music's universal speech was there,
And ever and anon the wily stealth
Of Love was murmuring in the fitful air.