I. <br /> <br />Alone on a hillside of heather, <br />I lay with dark thoughts in my mind, <br />In the midst of the beautiful weather <br />I was deaf, I was dumb, I was blind. <br />I knew not the glories around me, <br />I counted the world as it seems, <br />Till a spirit of melody found me, <br />And taught me in visions and dreams. <br /> <br /> <br />II. <br /> <br />For the sound of a chorus of voices <br />Came gathering up from below, <br />And I heard how all Nature rejoices, <br />And moves with a musical flow. <br />O strange! we are lost in delusion, <br />Our ways and doings are wrong, <br />We are drowning, in wilful confusion, <br />The notes of that wonderful song. <br /> <br /> <br />III. <br /> <br />But listen, what harmony holy <br />Is mingling its notes with our own! <br />The discord is vanishing slowly, <br />And melts in that dominant tone. <br />And they that have heard it can never <br />Return to confusion again, <br />Their voices are music for ever, <br />And join in the mystical strain. <br /> <br /> <br />IV. <br /> <br />No mortal can utter the beauty <br />That dwells in the song that they sing; <br />They move in the pathway of duty, <br />They follow the steps of their King. <br />I would barter the world and its glory, <br />That vision of joy to prolong, <br />Or to hear and remember the story <br />That lies in the heart of their song.<br /><br />James Clerk Maxwell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-the-air-of-lorelei/
