CLXXV.THE CHURCH DIAL.
I
Beneath me was the misty sea,
O'er which a beetling summit hung,
And, half way up, a blasted tree
With creaking branches swung:
The yellow crowsfoot blossomed there,
And juicy samphire to the bare
And lean rock clung.
II
And sweetly to the very edge
The soft and thymy greensward crept,
And, hanging slightly o'er the ledge,
Perpetually wept
With drippings from a hidden spring,
Heard only when the murmuring
Of ocean slept.
III
There, almost stooping o'er the wave,
A rustic chapel stood; below
The sea had hollowed out a cave
With labour long and slow;
And it was plain that any shock
That church from off its brow of rock
Might overthrow.
IV
And many a simple heart would grieve
At this rude sacrilege of time,
Who loved for prayer, at morn or eve,
The chalky downs to climb,
While to their litanies the wave,
With its eternal thunder, gave
Response sublime.
V
So plaintively the soft sea wailed,
So blue and breezy were the skies,
So tranquilly the white ships sailed
In pomp before my eyes,
The very sweetness of it all
Did there my willing spirit call
To moralize.
VI
The dial on the chapel side
With ivy tendrils was entwined,
As though the flight of time to hide
Were office true and kind;
While, on the breath of ocean borne,
The restless shoots in playful scorn
Waved unconfined.
VII
This incident, the quiet hour,
The sanctity of that lone place,
Conspired to give the sight a power
Of true pathetic grace;
And, as I gazed on it, methought
That somewhat of a sign was wrought
For me to trace.
VIII
For I interpreted the gesture,
To illustrate how holy faith
Was the pure soul's unfading vesture,
The Saint's immortal wreath;
And, with significance sublime,
It taught how faith abolished time
By killing death.
IX
Mute preacher! pensive evergreen!
O may I learn, this day, from thee,
The obscure sage of this lone scene
Hard by the mighty sea,
How faith may, through Another's merit,
For all the sons of time inherit
Eternity!
