Prelude: By Still Waters

Oh, be not led away,         Lured by the colour of the sun-rich day.     The gay romance of song         Unto the spirit life doth not belong:     Though far-between the hours         In which the Master of Angelic powers     Lightens the dusk within         The holy of holies, be it thine to win     Rare vistas of white light,         Half parted lips through which the Infinite     Murmurs her ancient story,         Harkening to whom the wandering planets hoary     Waken primeval fires,         With deeper rapture in celestial choirs     Breathe, and with fleeter motion         Wheel in their orbits through the surgeless ocean.     So hearken thou like these,         Intent on her, mounting by slow degrees,     Until thy song's elation         Echoes her multitudinous meditation.