TRANSLATED BY LORD FRANCIS LEVESON GOWER.
THAT anthem's long-remember'd strain
Revives the scenes of sinless youth again,
When on the stillness of the Sabbath-day,
Heaven in that peal seem'd pouring from above, And I look'd upward for its kiss of love,
Whilst saints might wish with joy like mine to pray. An undefined aspiration
Impelled me from the haunts of man;
I formed myself a new creation,
While tears of Christian fervour ran. This very song proclaimed to childhood's ear The solemn tide for joys for ever past, And memory waking while the song I hear,
Arrests my strides, and checks me at the last. Sound on, blest strain, your task almost is done; Tears force their way and earth regains her son.
TRANSLATED BY LORD FRANCIS LEVESON GOWER.
TURN round and from this hillock's height,
Back to the town direct thy sight.
See, from the jaws of yonder gate,
How thick the insects congregate;
They celebrate, in guise so gay,
Our Saviour's resurrection day,
From lowly roof, and stifling cell,
Where labour's murky children dwell—
From chamber close, and garret high;
From many an alley's dismal sty,
And from the venerable night,
Shed by the church's shadowy height,
They wander forth and court the light.—
See how the myriads buzz and throng
The garden and the field along;
See on the stream how thick they float,
The steadier barge and heeling boat.
How yonder skiff, o'erladen, laves
Its gunwale in the rippling waves.
Yon distant mountain path no less
Is gleaming with the tints of dress.
THE SABBATH BELL.
THE cheerful Sabbath bells, wherever heard,
Strike pleasant on the sense, most like the voice
Of one, who from the far-off hills proclaims
Tidings of good to Zion: chiefly when
Their piercing tones fall sudden on the ear
Of the contemplant, solitary man,
Whom thoughts abstruse or high have chanced to lure
Forth from the walks of men, revolving oft,
And oft again, hard matter, which eludes
And baffles his pursuit-thought-sick and tired
Of controversy, where no end appears,
No clue to his research, the lonely man
Half wishes for society again.
Him thus engaged, the Sabbath bells salute
Sudden! his heart awakes, his ears drink in
This cheering music; his relenting soul
Yearns after all the joys of social life,
And softens with the love of human kind.
THROUGH Sorrow's night, and dangers' path,
Amid the deepening gloom,
We, soldiers of an injured King,
Are marching to the tomb.
There, when the turmoil is no more,
And all our powers decay,
Our cold remains in solitude
Shall sleep the years away.
Our labours done, securely laid
In this our last retreat,
Unheeded, o'er our silent dust
The storms of life shall beat.
Yet not thus lifeless, thus inane,
The vital spark shall lie,
For o'er life's wreck that spark shall rise
To see its kindred sky.
These ashes too, this little dust,
Our Father's care shall keep,
Till the last angel rise, and break
The long and dreary sleep.
Then love's soft dew o'er every eye
Shall shed its mildest rays,
And the long silent dust shall burst
With shouts of endless praise.
TRANSLATED BY LORD HOLLAND.
I MUST lie down and slumber in the dust,
And if to-morrow thou should'st call me, Lord,
Perhaps it were too late-perhaps thy word
Might find no entrance in the ear of death.
O, Sovereign Power, and merciful as just,
The influence of thy present grace
afford:
Visit me now, for what am I but breath,
Dust, ashes, smoke that vanisheth away?
Full well I know that at the judgment-day,
I shall again put on these bones of mine;
These eyes shall see my Saviour and my God.
O sure and only joy! O thought divine,
To comfort and sustain me on the road
That leads to poor Mortality's abode.
THE SUN AND THE CHRISTIAN.
How fine has the day been, how bright was the sun,
How lovely and joyful the course that he run,
Though he rose in a mist when his race he begun,
And there follow'd some droppings of rain.
But now the fair traveller's come to the west,
His
rays are all gold, and his beauties are best;
He paints the sky gay as he sinks to his rest,
And foretels a bright rising again.
Just such is the Christian; his course he begins,
Like the sun in a mist when he mourns for his sins,
And melts into tears; then he breaks out and shines,
And travels his heav'nly way:
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