Explore "How Shall he Sing who Hath no Song?" by George MacDonald on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
How shall he sing who hath no song? / He laugh who hath no mirth? / Will cannot wake the sleeping song! / Yea, Love itself in vain may long / To sing with them that have a song, / Or, mirthless, laugh with Mirth! / He who would sing but hath no song / Must speak the right, denounce the wrong, / Must humbly front the indignant throng, / Must yield his back to Satire's thong, / Nor shield his face from liar's prong, / Must say and do and be the truth, / And fearless wait for what ensueth, / Wait, wait, with patience sweet and strong, / Until God's glory fill the earth; / Then shall he sing who had no song, / He laugh who had no mirth!
Yea, if in land of stony dearth / Like barren rock thou sit, / Round which the phantom-waters flit / Of heart- and brain-mirage / That can no thirst assuage, / Yet be thou still, and wait, wait long; / A right sea comes to drown the wrong; / God's glory comes to fill the earth, / And thou, no more a scathed rock, / Shalt start alive with gladsome shock, / Shalt a hand-clapping billow be, / And shout with the eternal sea!