quote · Legacy record
A voice to light gave being: To Time, and man his earth-born chronicler; A voice shall finish doubt and dim foreseeing, And sweep away life’s visionary stir; The trumpet, (we intoxicate with pride, Arm at its blast for deadly wars,) To archangelic lips applied, The grave shall open, quench the stars. O silence! are men’s noisy years No more than moments of thy life? Is harmony, blest queen of smiles and tears, With her smooth tones and discords just, Tempered into rapturous strife, Thy destined bond-slave? No! though earth be dust And vanish, though the Heavens dissolve, her stay Is in the word, that shall not pass away.
A voice to light gave being: To Time, and man his earth-born chronicler; A voice shall finish doubt and dim foreseeing, And sweep away life’s visionary stir; The trumpet, (we intoxicate with pride, Arm at its blast for deadly wars,) To archangelic lips applied, The grave shall open, quench the stars. O silence! are men’s noisy years No more than moments of thy life? Is harmony, blest queen of smiles and tears, With her smooth tones and discords just, Tempered into rapturous strife, Thy destined bond-slave? No! though earth be dust And vanish, though the Heavens dissolve, her stay Is in the word, that shall not pass away.
Approximate author period: c. 1810 AD · industrial
Meaning not yet available
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Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- William Wordsworth
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 1810 AD · industrial
author lifetime midpoint (1770–1850)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- A Cyclopædia of Sacred Poetical Quotations (catalogued1888) (1888 AD)
Page 683 · printed citation: Wordsworth · subject: WORD
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.