The Midday sun, with fiercest glare,
Broods over the hazy, twinkling air;
Along the level sand
The palm-tree’s shade unwavering lies,
Just as thy towers, Damascus, rise
To greet yon wearied band.
The leader of that martial crew ...
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Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!
All common things, each day’s events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our...
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“CARRY me across!”
The Syrian heard, rose up, and braced
His huge limbs to the accustomed toil:
“My child, see how the waters boil?
The night-black heavens look angry-faced;
But life is little loss.
“I ’ll carry thee with...
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From the Persian by William R. Alger
TO heaven approached a Sufi Saint,
From groping in the darkness late,
And, tapping timidly and faint,
Besought admission at God’s gate.
Said God, “Who seeks to enter here?”
“’T is I, dear Friend,” the...
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Deep on the convent-roof the snows
Are sparkling to the moon:
My breath to heaven like vapor goes:
May my soul follow soon!
The shadows of the convent-towers
Slant down the snowy sward,
Still creeping with the creeping hours
That...
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From harmony, from heavenly harmony,
This universal frame began;
When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arise, ye more than dead!
Then...
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From “Childe Harold,” Canto IV.
VASTNESS which grows, but grows to harmonize,
All musical in its immensities;
Rich marbles, richer painting, shrines where flame
The lamps of gold, and haughty dome which vies
In air with earth’s chief structures,...
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Long pored Saint Austin o’er the sacred page,
And doubt and darkness overspread his mind;
On God’s mysterious being thought the Sage,
The Triple Person in one Godhead joined.
The more he thought, the harder did he find
To solve the various doubts...
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Saint Anthony at church
Was left in the lurch,
So he went to the ditches
And preached to the fishes;
They wriggled their tails,
In the sun glanced their scales.
The carps, with their spawn,
Are all hither drawn;
Have opened their...
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Ton Église, Seigneur, est le vaisseau sur mer, Tu es le vrai pilote, et provident et sage ; La foi en est le mât, charité le cordage, Et l'ancre un saint espoir, qui nous vient animer.
Les pasteurs, matelots, ne cessent de ramer, Le monde est cette mer toute...
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