Thou drownest Nature's sweet and kindly | You cross the threshold; and dim and voices, And jarrest the celestial harmonies? small Is the space that serves for the Shepherd's Fold; Were half the power that fills the world The narrow aisle, the bare, white wall, with terror, Were half the wealth bestow'd on camps and courts, The pews, and the pulpit quaint and tall, Herbert's chapel at Bemerton Hardly more spacious is than this; But Poet and Pastor, blent in one, Clothed with a splendor, as of the sun, That lowly and holy edifice. The warrior's name would be a name ab- It is not the wall of stone without horrèd, And every nation that should lift again Its hand against a brother, on its forehead Would wear for evermore the curse of Cain! That makes the building small or great, But the soul's light shining round about, And the faith that overcometh doubt, And the love that stronger is than hate. Were I a pilgrim in search of peace, Were I a pastor of Holy Church, Down the dark future, through long gene- More than a bishop's diocese rations, The echoing sounds grow fainter and then cease; And like a bell, with solemn, sweet vibrations, I hear once more the voice of Christ say, "Peace!" Should I prize this place of rest, and re lease From farther longing and farther search. Here would I stay, and let the world With its distant thunder roar and roll; Storms do not rend the sail that is furled; Nor like a dead leaf, tossed and whirled In an eddy of wind, is the anchored soul. HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. LINES, COMPOSED A FEW MILES ABOVE TINTERN FIVE years have past; five summers, with Of five long winters! and again I hear With a sweet inland murmur.-Once again The landscape with the quiet of the sky. Which at this season, with their unripe Of harmony, and the deep power of joy, We see into the life of things. fruits, Are clad in one green hue, and lose themselves Among the woods and copses, nor disturb The wild green landscape. Once again I see If this Be but a vain belief, yet, oh! how oft, In darkness, and amid the many shapes Of joyous daylight; when the fretful stir Unprofitable, and the fever of the world, These hedge-rows, hardly hedge-rows, little Have hung upon the beatings of my heart, lines How oft, in spirit, have I turned to thee, Of sportive wood run wild: these pastoral O sylvan Wye! Thou wanderer thro' the farms, woods, Green to the very door; and wreaths of How often has my spirit turned to thee! smoke Sent up, in silence, from among the trees With some uncertain notice, as might seem And now, with gleams of half-extinguished thought, With many recognitions dim and faint, Of vagrant Dwellers in the houseless And somewhat of a sad perplexity, The picture of the mind revives again: woods, Or of some Hermit's cave, where by his fire Where here I stand, not only with the sense The Hermit sits alone. Of present pleasure, but with pleasing These beauteous Forms, Through a long absence, have not been to me As is a landscape to a blind man's eye: To them I may have owed another gift, In which the burthen of the mystery, thoughts That in this moment there is life and food For future years. And so I dare to hope, Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first I came among these hills; when like a roe I bounded o'er the mountains, by the sides Of the deep rivers, and the lonely streams, Wherever nature led: more like a man Flying from something that he dreads, than one Who sought the thing he loved. For nature then (The coarser pleasures of my boyish days, And their glad animal movements all gone by) To me was all in all.-I cannot paint What then I was. The sounding cataract Haunted me like a passion: the tall rock, The mountain, and the deep and gloomy wood, Their colors and their forms, were then to me Is lightened that serene and blessed An appetite; a feeling and a love, While with an eye made quiet by the Faint I, nor mourn nor murmur; other Have followed, for such loss, I would The heart that loved her; 'tis her privi Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all Therefore let the And the round ocean and the living air, thought, moon And let the misty mountain winds be free And rolls through all things. Therefore To blow against thee: and, in after years, "PSALMS AND HYMNS AND SPIRITUAL SONGS." EPH. V. 19. WATCHMAN, TELL US OF THE NIGHT. Watchman, tell us of the night- Peace and truth, its course portends. Watchman, will its beams alone Gild the spot that gave them birth? Traveller, ages are its own See, it bursts o'er all the earth! Watchman, tell us of the night, For the morning seems to dawn. Traveller, darkness takes its flightDoubt and terror are withdrawn. Watchman, let thy wandering cease; Hie thee to thy quiet home. Traveller, lo! the Prince of PeaceLo! the Son of God, is come. SIR JOHN BOWRING. ON THE MORNING OF CHRIST'S That He our deadly forfeit should release, And with His Father work us a perpetual peace. II. That glorious form, that light unsufferable, To sit the midst of Trinal Unity, III. Say, heav'nly Muse, shall not thy sacred vein Afford a present to the Infant God? Hast thou no verse, no hymn, or solemn strain, To welcome Him to this His new abode, Now while the heav'n, by the sun's team untrod, Hath took no print of the approaching light, And all the spangled host keep watch in squadrons bright ? IV. NATIVITY. I. See how from far upon the eastern road The star-led wizards haste with odors sweet: THIS is the month, and this the happy Oh run, prevent them with thy humble ode, morn, Wherein the Son of heav'n's eternal King, Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born, Our great redemption from above did bring; For so the holy sages once did sing, And lay it lowly at His blessed feet; greet, And join thy voice unto the Angel quire, From out His secret altar touch'd with hallow'd fire. |