First was the world as one great cymbal made, <br />Where jarring winds to infant Nature played. <br />All music was a solitary sound, <br />To hollow rocks and murm'ring fountains bound. <br /> <br />Jubal first made the wilder notes agree; <br />And Jubal tuned music's Jubilee; <br />He call'd the echoes from their sullen cell, <br />And built the organ's city where they dwell. <br /> <br />Each sought a consort in that lovely place, <br />And virgin trebles wed the manly bass. <br />From whence the progeny of numbers new <br />Into harmonious colonies withdrew. <br /> <br />Some to the lute, some to the viol went, <br />And others chose the cornet eloquent, <br />These practicing the wind, and those the wire, <br />To sing men's triumphs, or in Heaven's choir. <br /> <br />Then music, the mosaic of the air, <br />Did of all these a solemn noise prepare; <br />With which she gain'd the empire of the ear, <br />Including all between the earth and sphere. <br /> <br />Victorious sounds! yet here your homage do <br />Unto a gentler conqueror than you; <br />Who though he flies the music of his praise, <br />Would with you Heaven's Hallelujahs raise.<br /><br />Andrew Marvell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/music-s-empire/
