“How Can I Keep from Singing?”
A poem for inspiration in our discouraging times
Poet and author, Anne Bartlett Warner, wrote this poem in 1864. It would later be set to music and used as both a secular song as well as a hymn.
When tyrants tremble sick with fear
And hear their death knell ringing
…..
How can I keep from singing?
Anne Bartlett Warner
My life flows on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear that music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?
While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though the darkness ’round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I’m clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
When tyrants tremble sick with fear
And hear their death knell ringing
…..
How can I keep from singing?