At Sunset :: :: University of Virginia Library

I come to-day a verse to build
Which skill should match with arches fine,
A task to set the workman's guild
Whose strength shall stand for things divine.

In this fair isle, by Nature blest,
Where men for health and pleasure throng,
I call a spirit from its rest,
I summon back a soul with song.

For God who gave this genial sky,
The rapture of this mellow air,
Did lend in happy days gone by
A presence grand, an influence rare.

Our beauteous seasons wax and wane,
And bear us on to fate and death;
But he shall bloom and bloom again
In every generation's breath.

Oh! fine and brave that subtle hand
Which found the knots, so small and strong,

By which belief and passion band
To do divine and human wrong.

He caught the echo of the wail
Which once from Calvary's mountain rolled,
When felt the Love that cannot fail
The spite of superstition old.

His voice took up the trumpet blast
Which Hope's glad resurrection blew,
When out of mystic shadow passed
The glory that the Master knew.

Oh! deep of heart, oh! true of thought!
The temper of thy perfect steel
In Heaven's high armory was wrought,
The strength of Justice to reveal.

The Negro in the Southern wild
Had cause to bless thy champion name;
The Northern freeman for his child
Thy gracious heritage doth claim.

The faith that maketh Woman free
For humankind to do and dare,
The peace that dwells with liberty
Was in thy teaching and thy prayer.

Here the foundation stone we lay
Of some fine fabric that shall rise
To image to a later day
Thee, greatly good, and purely wise.

When God vouchsafes his greatest gift,
The Prophet, crown of all desire,
Let us our duteous emblem lift,
Let us endeavor and aspire.

So shall the work we strive to rear
Be crowned with blessing in our sight;
And, like the life we honor here,
Reflect the everlasting light.

1880.