Lyrics

HOPE
Poem, Danske Dandridge – Music, Terry Tucker

Ah me! what battles I have fought!
I would I knew the rune that lays the swarming shades of weary days That take the lonely House of Thought!

A restless rabble, unsubdued; a wild and haggard multitude,
Distorted shapes that spring from tears,
And torments born of wedded fears.

Sometimes, amid the changing rout, a rainbowed figure glides about, And from her brightness, like the day,
The whimpling shadows slink away.....
I know that lyre of seven strings, the seven colors of her wings,
The seven blossoms of her crown...

There violets twine for amethyst, small lilies white as silk-weed down,
There myrtle sprays her locks have kissed,
And pansies that are beryl blue and varied roses, rich of hue;
With iridescent loving eyes of buds that bloom in Paradise.

Come often, thou eternal child! New-string thy lyre and sing to me.
Thy voice ecstatic, fresh and wild enthralls each dark-browed phantasy...
Beyond the walls she bids me peer to see a Future, dim and dear,
Sweet faces shining through the mist like children waiting to be kissed, A lovely land that knows not pain, Atlantis land beyond Life's main, Where we who love may love again - Ah me! is this beyond the plan
Of God's beneficence to man?