The Choir Invisible
SATB Choir. A cappella or lightly accompanied. This enchanting setting of George Eliot's poem will be a favorite of your choir and congregation for years to come. Not terribly easy, but well worth the effort. Use on All Saint's Day, or for any service of remembrance.
O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge our search to vaster issues.
So to live is heaven:
To make undying music in the world,
Breathing a beauteous order that controls
With growing sway the growing life of all.
This is life to come,
Which martyred ones have made more glorious
For us who strive to follow.
May I reach that purest heaven, be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty,
Be the sweet presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion more intense!
So shall I join the choir invisible, the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness, the gladness of the world.