From “The Pleasures of Hope” 1
UNFADING Hope! when life’s last embers burn,
When soul to soul, and dust to dust return!
Heaven to thy charge resigns the awful hour!
O, then thy kingdom comes! Immortal Power!
What though each spark of earth-born rapture fly
The quivering lip, pale cheek, and closing eye!
Bright to the soul thy seraph...
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Oh the wonder of our life,
Pain and pleasure, rest and strife,
Mystery of mysteries,
Set twixt two eternities!Lo, the moments come and go,
E’en as sparks, and vanish so;
Flash from darkness into light,
Quick as thought are quenched in night.With an import grand and strange
Are they fraught in ceaseless change... -
The Bird that soars on highest wing
Builds on the ground her lowly nest;
And she that doth most sweetly sing
Sings in the shade, where all things rest;
In lark and nightingale we see
What honor hath humility.When Mary chose “the better part,”
She meekly sat at Jesus’ feet;
And Lydia’s gently opened heart
Was... -
Robert of Sicily, brother of Pope Urbane
And Valmond, emperor of Allemaine,
Apparelled in magnificent attire,
With retinue of many a knight and squire,
On Saint John’s eve, at vespers, proudly sat
And heard the priests chant the Magnificat.
And as he listened o’er and o’er again
Repeated, like a burden or refrain,
He caught the... -
From “Pippa Passes”
ALL service ranks the same with God:
If now, as formerly he trod
Paradise, his presence fills
Our earth, each only as God wills
Can work—God’s puppets, best and worst,
Are we; there is no last nor first.Say not “a small event”! Why “small”?
Costs it more pain than this, ye call
A “great event,” should... -
God called the nearest angels who dwell with Him above:
The tenderest one was Pity, the dearest one was Love.“Arise,” He said, “my angels! a wail of woe and sin
Steals through the gates of heaven, and saddens all within.“My harps take up the mournful strain that from a lost world swells,
The smoke of torment clouds the light and blights the... -
There came a soul to the gate of Heaven
Gliding slow—
A soul that was ransomed and forgiven,
And white as snow:
And the angels all were silent.A mystic light beamed from the face
Of the radiant maid,
But there also lay on its tender grace
A mystic shade:
And the angels all were... -
From “Ion,” Act I. Sc. 2.
’T IS a little thing
To give a cup of water; yet its draught
Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips,
May give a shock of pleasure to the frame
More exquisite than when nectarean juice
Renews the life of joy in happier hours.
It is a little thing to speak a phrase
Of common... -
My good blade carves the casques of men,
My tough lance thrusteth sure,
My strength is as the strength of ten,
Because my heart is pure.
The shattering trumpet shrilleth high,
The hard brands shiver on the steel,
The splintered spear-shafts crack and fly,
The horse and rider reel:
They reel, they roll in clanging lists,... -
Prune thou thy words; the thoughts control
That o’er thee swell and throng;—
They will condense within thy soul,
And change to purpose strong.But he who lets his feelings run
In soft luxurious flow,
Shrinks when hard service must be done,
And faints at every woe.Faith’s meanest deed more favor bears,
Where...