I HEAR a voice that speaks to me
Out of the silence of my dreams;
Somewhere from long eternity
Where the first white dawn gleams.

Night and the stars, day and the sun,
Winds and the trumpets of mid-seas,
All in one common key they run
Through deathless melodies.

Take this, my answer for all time --
Yea, to his speech, to his command:
Surrendering all life of mine
Unto his heart and hand.

by William Stanley Brathwaite