No sun or star so bright
   In all the world of light
That they should draw to Heaven his downward eye: 
   He hears th’ Almighty’s word,
   He sees the angel’s sword,
Yet low upon the earth his heart and treasure lie.

   Lo! from you argent field,
   To him and us revealed,
One gentle Star glides down, on earth to dwell. 
   Chained as they are below
   Our eyes may see it glow,
And as it mounts again, may track its brightness well.

   To him it glared afar,
   A token of wild war,
The banner of his Lord’s victorious wrath: 
   But close to us it gleams,
   Its soothing lustre streams
Around our home’s green walls, and on our church-way path.

   We in the tents abide
   Which he at distance eyed
Like goodly cedars by the waters spread,
   While seven red altar-fires
   Rose up in wavy spires,
Where on the mount he watched his sorceries dark and dread.

   He watched till morning’s ray
   On lake and meadow lay,
And willow-shaded streams that silent sweep
   Around the bannered lines,
   Where by their several signs
The desert-wearied tribes in sight of Canaan sleep.

   He watched till knowledge came
   Upon his soul like flame,
Not of those magic fires at random caught: 
   But true Prophetic light
   Flashed o’er him, high and bright,
Flashed once, and died away, and left his darkened thought.

   And can he choose but fear,
   Who feels his god so near,
That when he fain would curse, his powerless tongue
   In blessing only moves? —
   Alas! the world he loves
Too close around his heart her tangling veil hath flung.

   Sceptre and Star divine,
   Who in Thine inmost shrine
Hash made us worshippers, O claim Thine own;
   More than Thy seers we know —
   O teach our love to grow
Up to Thy heavenly light, and reap what Thou hast sown.

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER EASTER

A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come; but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.  St. John xvi. 21.

Well may I guess and feel
Why Autumn should be sad;
But vernal airs should sorrow heal,
Spring should be gay and glad: 
Yet as along this violet bank I rove,
The languid sweetness seems to choke my breath,
I sit me down beside the hazel grove,
And sigh, and half could wish my weariness were death.

Like a bright veering cloud
Grey blossoms twinkle there,
Warbles around a busy crowd
Of larks in purest air. 
Shame on the heart that dreams of blessings gone,
Or wakes the spectral forms of woe and crime,
When nature sings of joy and hope alone,
Reading her cheerful lesson in her own sweet time.