Who would not wish to have the skill
Of tuning instruments at will?
Ye powers who guide my actions, tell
Why I, in whom the seeds of music dwell,
Who most its power and excellence admire,
Whose very breast itself a lyre
Was never taught the happy art
Of modulating sounds,
And can no more in concert bear a part
Than the wild roe that o’re the mountain bounds.
Who would not wish to have the skill
Hymnal/Album: This hymn was included in a manuscript titled “MS Festivals.” This manuscript is held by the Methodist Archive and Research Centre of the John Rylands Library at The University of Manchester (accession number DDCW 6/71). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in S.T. Kimbrough Jr. and Oliver A. Beckerlegge, eds., The Unpublished Poetry of Charles Wesley, vol. 3 (Nashville: Kingswood Books, 1992), page 109.
Publishing: Public Domain