“Epic shouts passed, and trumpet calls, and tempestuous sounds borne upon sovereign rhythms. For in that sonorous soul everything took shape in sound. It sang of light. It sang of darkness, sang of life and death. It sang for those who were victorious in battle. It sang for himself who was conquered and laid low. It sang. All was song. It was nothing but song.”

Jean-Christophe (1904 - 1912), Journey's End: The Burning Bush (1911)
Context: God was not to him the impassive Creator, a Nero from his tower of brass watching the burning of the City to which he himself has set fire. God was fighting. God was suffering. Fighting and suffering with all who fight and for all who suffer. For God was Life, the drop of light fallen into the darkness, spreading out, reaching out, drinking up the night. But the night is limitless, and the Divine struggle will never cease: and none can know how it will end. It was a heroic symphony wherein the very discords clashed together and mingled and grew into a serene whole! Just as the beech-forest in silence furiously wages war, so Life carries war into the eternal peace.
The wars and the peace rang echoing through Christophe. He was like a shell wherein the ocean roars. Epic shouts passed, and trumpet calls, and tempestuous sounds borne upon sovereign rhythms. For in that sonorous soul everything took shape in sound. It sang of light. It sang of darkness, sang of life and death. It sang for those who were victorious in battle. It sang for himself who was conquered and laid low. It sang. All was song. It was nothing but song.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Epic shouts passed, and trumpet calls, and tempestuous sounds borne upon sovereign rhythms. For in that sonorous soul e…" by Romain Rolland?
Romain Rolland photo
Romain Rolland 43
French author 1866–1944

Related quotes

William Makepeace Thackeray photo

“Then sing as Martin Luther sang,
As Doctor Martin Luther sang,
“Who loves not wine, woman and song,
He is a fool his whole life long.””

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) novelist

A Credo, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

James Weldon Johnson photo

“Life and summer are fleeting,’ sang the bird. ‘Snow and dark, and the winter comes. Nothing remains the same.”

Elyne Mitchell (1913–2002) Australian writer

Source: Silver Brumby's Daughter

Little Richard photo

“A lot of songs I sang to crowds to get their reaction. That's how I knew they'd hit.”

Little Richard (1932) American pianist, singer and songwriter

quoted from Tutti Frutti, p. 75
White, Charles (2003). The Life and Times of Little Richard: The Authorized Biography. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0306805529.

Harry Chapin photo
Christina Rossetti photo

“Ah me, but where are now the songs I sang
When life was sweet because you call’d them sweet?”

Christina Rossetti (1830–1894) English poet

Source: Poems of Christina Rossetti

William Morris photo

“O thrush, your song is passing sweet
But never a song that you have sung,
Is half so sweet as thrushes sang
When my dear Love and I were young.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

Other Days, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

K. L. Saigal photo
William Wordsworth photo

“He sang of love, with quiet blending,
Slow to begin, and never ending;
Of serious faith, and inward glee;
That was the song,—the song for me!”

William Wordsworth (1770–1850) English Romantic poet

O Nightingale! Thou Surely Art, l. 17 (1807).

Shannon Hale photo

Related topics