“At the thought of God my heart leaps for joy,
and I cannot help my music doing the same.

—Joseph Haydn

If God were only Wisdom-born-of-Power,
and from that coming forth that ever was
there came no equal Third—eternal Love—
the music of the spheres would sound like Bach’s
austere polyphony: toccata’s blast,
the mighty Father’s echo; fugue’s cold math,
the lifeless shadow of the living Word;
and passacaglia’s stern and frowning dance.

But Wisdom ever plays before the Lord,
delighting in the company of men;
and so the music’s master, with his hoard
of laughter-tempered learning, took a pen
and wrote this counterpoint—God be adored!—
in which the numbers skip like lambs. Amen.