A hundred thousand birds salute the day
One solitary bird salutes the night
Its mellow grieving wiles our grief away
And tunes our weary watches to delight
It seems to sing the thoughts we cannot say
And to set them right
Until we feel once more that may is may
And hope some buds may bloom without a blight
A hundred thousand birds salute the day
One solitary bird salutes the night
This solitary bird outweighs, outvies
The hundred thousand merry-making birds
Whose innocent warblings might make us wise
Would we but follow when they bid us rise
Would we but set their notes of praise to words
And launch our hearts up with them to the skies