Poems (Dorr)/Lyric

by Julia Caroline Dorr

LYRIC  FOR THE DEDICATION OF A MUSIC-HALL

No grand Cathedral's vaulted space
 Where, through the "dim, religious light,"
Gleam pictured saint and cross and crown,
 We consecrate with song to-night;

No stately temple lifting high
 Its dome against the starlit skies,
Where lofty arch and glittering spire
 Like miracles of beauty rise.

Yet here beneath this humbler roof
 With reverent hearts and lips we come;
Hail, music! Song and Beauty, hail!
 Henceforth be these poor walls your home.

Here speak to hearts that long have yearned
 Your presence and your spells to know;
Here touch the lips athirst to drink
 Where your perennial fountains flow.

Here, where our glorious mountain-peaks
 Sublimely pierce the ether blue,
Lift ye our souls, and bid them rise
 In aspirations grand and true!

O Music, Art, and Science, hail!
 We greet you now with glad acclaims;
Ye bay-crowned ones! the listening air
 Waits to re-echo with your names;

Waits for your voices ringing clear
 Above this weary, work-day world;
Waits till ye bid fair Truth arise,
 While Error from her throne is hurled!