1. In the time of strangled darkness,
When the world is left unmanned,
With the millions in the city
And a blight upon the land,
Not a soul can find Polaris
Nor indeed the starry sky,
And the ruins so long forgotten
Are the homes of time gone by.
But a voice calls in the mountains
And a wind blows off the hills,
“The time has come of promise
And of prophecy fulfilled:
Rise up, take sword and shovel,
Let all rise up and build!”

2. Our cathedrals fade to rubble
With the passing of the years;
The very notion of the Temple
Comes a-crashing round our ears.
Who would dare to dream of glory
And to seek it must withstand
All the anger and advances
Of the people of the land.
But a wind o’er rubble hovers
And it whispers in the still,
“The time has come of promise
And of prophecy fulfilled:
Rise up, take sword and shovel,
Let all rise up and build!”

3. First a whisper, then a rumble,
Then a crashing in the dawn;
See the guards in prostrate terror,
See the risen body gone.
From the heavens to the mountains,
From the mountains to the plains,
Falls the water, and the fire,
And the Spring has come again.
For the wind blows all before it,
And it blows where e’er it will!
Yes, the time has come of promise
And of prophecy fulfilled:
Rise up, take sword and shovel,
Let all rise up and build!

(Jeremy Holmes)