Explore "The Singers" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
God sent his Singers upon earth / With songs of sadness and of mirth, / That they might touch the hearts of men, / And bring them back to heaven again.
The first, a youth, with soul of fire, / Held in his hand a golden lyre; / Through groves he wandered, and by streams, / Playing the music of our dreams.
The second, with a bearded face, / Stood singing in the market-place, / And stirred with accents deep and loud / The hearts of all the listening crowd.
A gray old man, the third and last, / Sang in cathedrals dim and vast, / While the majestic organ rolled / Contrition from its mouths of gold.
And those who heard the Singers three / Disputed which the best might be; / For still their music seemed to start / Discordant echoes in each heart,
But the great Master said, "I see / No best in kind, but in degree; / I gave a various gift to each, / To charm, to strengthen, and to teach.
"These are the three great chords of might, / And he whose ear is tuned aright / Will hear no discord in the three, / But the most perfect harmony. "