University of Virginia Library

Oh! Thoughts—oh! Dreams—oh! communings supreme
Above all mortal thought—all earthly Dream—
Oh! Glorious Visitants—Etherial Guests—
Whose presence Love's quick consciousness attests,
Bright Contemplation—proud Companionship,
From our raised minds their worldly gloom to strip,
To enfranchise and to illumine them—behold
Sovereign are Solitude and Nature old!
Then we exist to nobler purpose far
Than when engaged in Life's tumultuous War—
Companionship and Contemplation proud!
Which none enjoy amongst the Worldling Crowd.
Oh! the deep Truth of Nature and the Light,
The Beauty of Creation and the Might!
The Eloquence and Mystery of the whole—
The life, the force, the feeling, and the Soul.
Nature! thy Scenes—thy Stores are ever new,
Bathed in the freshness of Heaven's living dew,
Anointed with the oil of Gladness still,
What change shall mar thee with Decay's foul Ill?
Thy mighty Fountains still exhaustless play,
Thy glorious Flames are kindling day by day;
Thy wond'rous pulses beat, nor know to pause—
For evermore endure thy steadfast laws;
And when we turn from Vanity and Strife
To thee, and live in thy Stupendous Life,
Unnumbered sources of Delight we find
To exalt the Emotions and to melt the Mind—
The Emotions and the Affections to upraise,
And melt the thoughts to gratitude and praise.
Oh! mighty Sources of Supreme Delight,
And endless Contemplation full of Might,
Find we—to exalt, to purify, and bless,
And cheer with high and boundless Happiness,
Great Nature! in thy lofty paths and pure—
A Happiness which shall unchanged endure!
Then—then—even thou and all thou hast are ours—
The Elements and their undying Powers,
The worlds of light and all their phases fair,—
The worlds that sparkle through the azure air,
The mighty Seasons and their mysteries all,
These, these, and thou—even thou our own we call.
Thou'rt then our own—and all that is of thine—
And our deep thought then makes thee more divine!
Yes—when we walk forth in unworldly ways,
And quit the busy scene—the social maze,
Nature and all her attributes sublime,
The lore, the treasures, and the works of Time,
All truths, all charms, all mysteries, and all powers,
Are then our own—the Universe is ours!

In such deep moments we are surely blest,
And the great Soul hath gladness for its guest!
But oh! there is a loftier Joy than this
There is a nobler and a deeper bliss;
There is a Joy as pure and more profound,
A Rapture deathless and without a bound,
A trance of Gladness yet more rich and full,
That never can exalt the cold and dull—
A grander, higher, heavenlier Happiness,
Which is but lost in its own dread excess!
It is of other Worlds the mystic sense,
O'erpowering, and absorbing, and intense—
That strange electrifying Consiousness
Whose glorious fulness doth so richly bless!—
The intoxicating Inspirations strong,
Which bear the yielding Soul with them along,
And all the Ecstacies that thus are brought
Unto the adoring Heart—the impassioned Thought;
Keen Ecstacies, that never could from Earth
On visible Nature draw their wond'rous birth;
Keen Ecstacies, that lift us, as on wings,
Above the influence of all mortal things—
Beginning and developing in Love,
For things immortal, and for Worlds above.
Of all the Visions that e'er cross'd the brain,
Of all that o'er the Imagination reign—
That ever haunted the deep Human Heart,
Which, which doth still the sweetest strength assert.
Oh! brightest Vision, fairest, most divine
Of all that o'er the raptured Mind can shine,
Deep Vision of the Heavenly Kings of Love—
This reigns supreme all other dreams above!
The Seraphim—the radiant Seraphim,
By these all else seems lifeless—dull, and dim;
The Seraphim—those deathless Beings bright,
For whom Love is the Life and Love the Light!
Whose Immortality's of Love alone—
The deepest Worshippers round Heaven's dread Throne,
They pour their Spirit's mighty Melodies
(Like waves exhaustless from unfathomed Seas)
Incessantly that blazing Throne around,
Till ring the Spheres with richer swells of sound!
The Heavenliest of all the Heavenly Things
That bear the immortal Crown and wear the wings!
Their vast Existences—the deep and high,
For ever deepening—heightening gloriously!—
Their keen Intensities of Feelings strong,
All musical—still wreaked on rapturous Song!—
Yet their great Love, so wond'rous and so wide
Seems vain and void, a Mightier Love beside,
The Love Almighty—far beyond all thought—
Oh! who shall sum the triumphs it hath wrought!
Those Beings who but breathe the breath supreme
Of uttermost Adorations—in one Dream—
One burning Dream of zeal undying tranced,
From Ecstacies to Ecstacies advanced—
They are but novices, but learners still—
Howe'er they feel the Impulse and the Will—
But faint Reflectors of the Almighty Love,
But panting Emulators of the Dove!
The All Divine and Everlating Son,
The blessed Saviour of a World undone.
Though all their glorious Strength on Praise they wreak,
And strive their Love to show—their Zeal to speak,
Their breathlessness of Adoration deep,
Is poor and light (howe'er their Souls it steep
In rich bright fervours mighty and profound)
Compared with that Almighty Love—the crowned
With Sacrifice astounding and immense,
A Love indeed unbounded and intense.
Though on deep Worship all their Souls they wreak,
Weak is their zeal, and its Revealment weak
With that High Love compared—all truth and light—
Which passeth understanding in its might—
The Love of Him who unto them hath given
The Eternities of Happiness and Heaven,
The power to worship, and the will to adore—
And oh! to those less worthy, more, far more,
A Gift beyond all Gifts, whose costly worth
Makes all beside a darkness and a dearth!
That Gift—Himself!—Himself—Oh! sacrifice—
Oh! Gift beyond all measure and all price!

Yet though their Love must of such Love fall short,
Those radiant Worshippers in Heaven's dread Court,
Immeasurably adore—intensely feel,
And kindle with a bright and burning zeal,
While their unfathomable smiles still prove
How bless'd the precious labour of their Love!
Systems and Ages melt like snow-flakes round,
While they by that deep Love are girt and bound—
Their ecstacy of zeal can know no pause
From all Creation, turning to its Cause!—
From all the Universe for evermore
Still to its Author, turning to adore!
Round them unheeded Suns unnumbered shine,
And Scenes are spread—deep, dazzling, and divine!
Their Heaven is all within—for there they see
The unshadowed Image still of Deity?

Oh! grandest, loftiest, noblest Happiness!—
Oh! glorious joy—in mystical excess!
Triumph of Bliss—surpassing and supreme!
To which all Earth's delights are as a Dream—
Even those delights the uplifted Spirit knows
When 'tis allowed to escape from worldly woes—
Received into great Nature's glad Repose!
When all itself to her it brightly gives,
And in her Life stupendous—breathes and lives.
Yea! even such bliss is left far, far behind
By the unassisted, self-awakened Mind!—
When borne on high by magic Powers—its own—
It soars beyond the Visible—the Known—
And dreams of other Worlds—ne'er yet made clear
To outward sense—barred still from eye and ear.
Oh! Joy, that doth most richly, purely bless,
Keen, brain-electrifying Consciousness,
Profoundest triumph of unfettered thought,
To which its earthlier triumphs are as nought—
Most glorious trance of Bliss—which now can know
Who wear the dull chains of the World below—
Exalted Rapture—fresh from yon bright Skies
When moments grow—divine Eternities!
Each thought becomes a World—a living Star,
And rolls in crowned Magnificence afar!—
While all Creation but appears to be
A Veil 'twixt us and the Infinite Mystery—
Then do we feel, thro' Heart, and Mind, and Frame,
A Joy, that hath in this World's tongues no name!—
Oh! Joy beyond all Joys, in rich excess—
Oh! grand, and deep, and glorious Happiness!