Ode to Peace

Daughter of God! that sitt’st on high Amid the dances of the sky, And guidest with thy gentle sway The planets on their tuneful way; Sweet Peace! shall ne’er again The smile of thy most holy face, From thine ethereal dwelling-place, Rejoice the wretched, weary race Of discord-breathing men? Too long, O gladness-giving Queen! Thy tarrying in heaven has been; Too long o’er this fair blooming world The flag of blood has been unfurled, Polluting God’s pure day; Whilst, as each maddening people reels, War onward drives his scythèd wheels, And at his horses’ bloody heels Shriek Murder and Dismay. Oft have I wept to hear the cry Of widow wailing bitterly; To see the parent’s silent tear For children fallen beneath the spear; And I have felt so sore The sense of human guilt and woe, That I, in Virtue’s passioned glow, Have cursed (my soul was wounded so) The shape of man I bore! Then come from thy serene abode, Thou gladness-giving child of God! And cease the world’s ensanguined strife, And reconcile my soul to life; For much I long to see, Ere I shall to the grave descend, Thy hand its blessèd branch extend, And to the world’s remotest end Wave Love and Harmony!