“The harp at Nature's advent strung
Has never ceased to play;
The song the stars of morning sung
Has never died away.”

— John Greenleaf Whittier

The Worship of Nature, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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John Greenleaf Whittier 47

American Quaker poet and advocate of the abolition of slave… 1807–1892

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“Without death,' he answered, 'life is meaningless. It is a story that can never be told. A song that can never be sung. For how would one finish it?”

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“I never learned how to tune a harp, or play upon a lute; but I know how to raise a small and inconsiderable city to glory and greatness.”

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As quoted by Plutarch, in Lives as translated by J. Langhorne and W. Langhorne (1836), p. 84 http://books.google.com/books?id=UFROAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA84
Variant translation: 'Tis true, I never learned how to tune a harp, or play upon a lute, but I know how to raise a small and inconsiderate city to glory and greatness.
Plutarch's Themistocles, 2:3 http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0007.tlg010.perseus-eng1:2 "...tuning the lyre and handling the harp were no accomplishments of his, but rather taking in hand a city that was small and inglorious and making it glorious and great" "...λύραν μὲν ἁρμόσασθαι καὶ μεταχειρίσασθαι ψαλτήριον οὐκ ἐπίσταται, πόλιν δὲ μικρὰν καὶ ἄδοξον παραλαβὼν ἔνδοξον καὶ μεγάλην ἀπεργάσασθαι." (at Perseus Project)

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"Lenore", st. 1 (1831).

“The harp at Nature's advent strungHas never ceased to play;The song the stars of morning sungHas never died away.”

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John Greenleaf Whittier 47

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“The harp at Nature's advent strung
Has never ceased to play;
The song the stars of morning sung
Has never died away.”