Wake Me A Song

Abram Joseph Ryan 1839 (Hagerstown) – 1886 (Louisville)



Out of the silences wake me a song,
Beautiful, sad, and soft, and low;
Let the loveliest music sound along,
And wing each note with a wail of woe:
Dim and drear
As hope's last tear;
Out of the silences wake me a hymn,
Whose sounds are like shadows soft and dim.

Out of the stillness in your heart --
A thousand songs are sleeping there --
Wake me a song, thou child of art!
The song of a hope in a last despair:
Dark and low,
A chant of woe;
Out of the stillness, tone by tone,
Cold as a snowflake, low as a moan.

Out of the darkness flash me a song,
Brightly dark and darkly bright;
Let it sweep as a lone star sweeps along
The mystical shadows of the night:
Sing it sweet;
Where nothing is drear, or dark, or dim,
And earth-song soars into heavenly hymn.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 15, 2023

46 sec read
112

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCCDD ECECBBFF AGAGXDD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 742
Words 153
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 7

Abram Joseph Ryan

Abram Joseph Ryan CM was an American poet an active proponent of the Confederate States of America and a Roman Catholic priest He has been called the Poet-Priest of the Confederacy more…

All Abram Joseph Ryan poems | Abram Joseph Ryan Books

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