listening to ives's second symphony

from steel and smoke we hear the music sound
in brass and woodwinds and the straining strings
the message is both subtle and profound
and seems to have both rushing feet and wings

the metre and the tone we comprehend
within our thought the powerful notes vibrate
in ways that we approve not reprehend
which make us calm and soothes all the irate

we wonder at the fact that the composer
followed a trade that seems to us prosaic
which sets for us a noticeable poser
of why he made this musical mosaic

the music comes to us across the sea
and gives us now one moment to be free