Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903.
By John Milton (1608–1674)At a Solemn Music
| BLEST pair of Sirens, pledges of Heaven’s joy, | |
| Sphere-born harmonious sisters, Voice and Verse, | |
| Wed your divine sounds, and mix’d power employ | |
| Dead things with inbreathed sense able to pierce; | |
| And to our high-raised fantasy present | 5 |
| That undisturbèd song of pure concent, | |
| Aye sung before the sapphire-coloured throne | |
| To Him that sits thereon, | |
| With saintly shout and solemn jubilee; | |
| Where the bright Seraphim, in burning row, | 10 |
| Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow; | |
| And the Cherubic host, in thousand quires, | |
| Touch their immortal harps of golden wires, | |
| With those just Spirits that wear victorious palms, | |
| Hymns devout and holy psalms | 15 |
| Singing everlastingly: | |
| That we on earth, with undiscording voice, | |
| May rightly answer that melodious noise; | |
| As once we did, till disproportion’d sin | |
| Jarr’d against nature’s chime and with harsh din | 20 |
| Broke the fair musick that all creatures made | |
| To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway’d | |
| In perfect diapason, whilst they stood | |
| In first obedience and their state of good. | |
| O may we soon again renew that song, | 25 |
| And keep in tune with heaven, till God ere long | |
| To His celestial concert us unite, | |
| To live with Him, and sing in endless morn of light! | |