Oh, How Can I Keep from Singing

Text by “Pauline T”

Music by Robert A. Harris (b. 1938)

My life flows on in endless song

Above earth’s lamentation.

I hear the real tho’ far off hymn

That hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm,

I hear the music ringing;

It sounds and echoes in my soul,

Oh, how can I keep from singing?

What tho’ the tempest ‘round me roars,

I know the truth, it liveth!

What tho’ the darkness ‘round me falls,

Songs in the night, it giveth.

No storm can shake my inmost calm, 

I hear the music ringing;

Since love is Lord of heav’n and earth,

How can I keep,

Oh, how can I keep from singing?

Image attributions:

Miranda - The Tempest (1916). John William Waterhouse  (1849–1917). Oil on canvas. Private collection. Via Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain

Photograph of Robert A. Harris from Northwestern University [https://www.music.northwestern.edu/faculty/profile/robert-harris]

How Can I Keep from Singing? Version first published in Bradbury's Bright Jewels for the Sunday School (1869). Public Domain.