The Christian Scholar By the Author of "The Cathedral" [i.e. Isaac Williams] |
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| VI. | VI.
ASPIRATIONS OF EARTH. |
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 | The Christian Scholar |  |
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VI. ASPIRATIONS OF EARTH.
“Now when o'er him in its bloom
Golden-wreathèd Youth had come,
By 'mid Alpheus stream descending
He called on his great ancestor,
Neptune of far-spreading power;
And his sire, his bow for ever bending,
The watcher God,
Who makes divine-built Delos his abode;
'Neath the night in open skies.
When lo, responding at his side
The paternal Voice replied—
While he the speaker sought to find;
‘My son, arise,
Seek we where assembled Elis lies;—
Follow thou my Voice behind.’”
Golden-wreathèd Youth had come,
By 'mid Alpheus stream descending
He called on his great ancestor,
Neptune of far-spreading power;
And his sire, his bow for ever bending,
The watcher God,
Who makes divine-built Delos his abode;
'Neath the night in open skies.
When lo, responding at his side
The paternal Voice replied—
While he the speaker sought to find;
‘My son, arise,
Seek we where assembled Elis lies;—
Follow thou my Voice behind.’”
ASPIRATIONS OF HEAVEN.
Such a Voice the poet hears
Haply in his own heart sounding,
While it seems to meet his ears
With ethereal speech surrounding,
In the dark, where nought appears,
Witnesses unseen abounding.
Haply in his own heart sounding,
While it seems to meet his ears
With ethereal speech surrounding,
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Witnesses unseen abounding.
Like the rainbow in the skies
Drinking with majestic potion;
Cradled in the immensities
Of the sun and of the ocean;
Such a spirit in them lies,
Light and life and space and motion.
Drinking with majestic potion;
Cradled in the immensities
Of the sun and of the ocean;
Such a spirit in them lies,
Light and life and space and motion.
'Neath the night's ambrosial halls,
'Neath the sky-encircled hollow,
Thus around the poet calls
Sea and Light—Neptune, Apollo:
And a Voice his heart appals,
‘Rise, my son, my guidance follow.’
'Neath the sky-encircled hollow,
Thus around the poet calls
Sea and Light—Neptune, Apollo:
And a Voice his heart appals,
‘Rise, my son, my guidance follow.’
Ere it with the many blend
Thus must man's immortal spirit
Through the universe ascend,
Nobler blessings to inherit,
Passing onward to its end,
Nobler destinies to merit.
Thus must man's immortal spirit
Through the universe ascend,
Nobler blessings to inherit,
Passing onward to its end,
Nobler destinies to merit.
| The Christian Scholar | |