 | Lyrical and other poems |  |
96
CAMP MEETING.
And say, can the rites of devotion
Be given more purely than here,
Where the loudest and only commotion
Is caused by the winds roving near?
Can the pray'r that is breath'd by affection,
To the God that it deems ever nigh,
Be unworthy his note and acception,
Because it is breath'd 'neath his sky;
With no shrine of an earthly creation;
No dome in resplendency bright;
But his own winds to waft the oblation,
And his own Sun to guide with his light.
Be given more purely than here,
Where the loudest and only commotion
Is caused by the winds roving near?
Can the pray'r that is breath'd by affection,
To the God that it deems ever nigh,
Be unworthy his note and acception,
Because it is breath'd 'neath his sky;
With no shrine of an earthly creation;
No dome in resplendency bright;
But his own winds to waft the oblation,
And his own Sun to guide with his light.
Had the Patriarchs of yore, when they wander'd
O'er the wild that was flame 'neath their feet,
Their time for rich palaces squander'd,
Would their pray'rs to that God been more sweet?
Tho' that shrine and that temple's erection
Were to him in origin given,
Oh! would it have led to connection,
With the shrine ever living in Heav'n.
Or, say, would the pray'r of that Being,
O'er whom fortune forever hath smiled,
Been more grateful and pure to th' All-Seeing,
Than the off'ring of misery's child?
Tho' the former in palace most splendid
The rites of acknowledgment gave;
Or the latter, whose off'ring was blended
With the winds of the desert and wave?
O'er the wild that was flame 'neath their feet,
Their time for rich palaces squander'd,
Would their pray'rs to that God been more sweet?
Tho' that shrine and that temple's erection
Were to him in origin given,
Oh! would it have led to connection,
With the shrine ever living in Heav'n.
Or, say, would the pray'r of that Being,
O'er whom fortune forever hath smiled,
Been more grateful and pure to th' All-Seeing,
Than the off'ring of misery's child?
Tho' the former in palace most splendid
97
Or the latter, whose off'ring was blended
With the winds of the desert and wave?
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