Singing the Living Tradition ‎#161

161. Peace! The Perfect Word

1 Peace! The perfect word is sounding,
like a universal hymn
under oceans, over mountains,
to the world’s remotest rim.

2 Toiling centuries have struggled
upward on a stony way
just to set the torch of freedom
where it flames aloft today.

3 All the old forlorn lost causes,
every fair forbidden dream,
and the prophet’s hopeless vision,
and the poet’s fitting gleam,

4 All the hopes of subject peoples,
all the dreams of the oppressed,
must be ours, our hopes, our visions.
We can never stay or rest.

Text Information

• First Line: Peace! The perfect word is sounding
• Title: Peace! The Perfect Word
• Author: Odell Shepard, 1844-1967
• Meter: 8.7.8.7.
• Language: English
• Publication Date: 1993
• Topic: Words and Deeds of Prophetic Women and Men: Peace; Hope

Tune Information

• Name: CHARLESTON
• Arranger: Alastair Cassels-Brown, 1927
• Meter: 8.7.8.7.
• Incipit: 12323 53215 67165
• Key: D Major
• Source: The Southern Harmony 1835
• Copyright: Arr. © 1982 The Church Pension Fund