 | The poetical works of Lucy Larcom |  |
HYMN.
WRITTEN FOR THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BEVERLY, MASS.
The sea sang sweetly to the shore
Two hundred years ago:
To weary pilgrim-ears it bore
A welcome, deep and low.
Two hundred years ago:
To weary pilgrim-ears it bore
A welcome, deep and low.
They gathered, in the autumnal calm,
To their first house of prayer;
And softly rose their Sabbath psalm
On the wild woodland air.
To their first house of prayer;
And softly rose their Sabbath psalm
On the wild woodland air.
The ocean took the echo up;
It rang from tree to tree:
And praise, as from an incense-cup,
Poured over earth and sea.
It rang from tree to tree:
And praise, as from an incense-cup,
Poured over earth and sea.
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They linger yet upon the breeze,
The hymns our fathers sung:
They rustle in the roadside trees,
And give each leaf a tongue.
The hymns our fathers sung:
They rustle in the roadside trees,
And give each leaf a tongue.
The grand old sea is moaning yet
With music's mighty pain:
No chorus has arisen, to fit
Its wondrous anthem-strain.
With music's mighty pain:
No chorus has arisen, to fit
Its wondrous anthem-strain.
When human hearts are tuned to Thine,
Whose voice is in the sea,
Life's murmuring waves a song divine
Shall chant, O God, to Thee!
Whose voice is in the sea,
Life's murmuring waves a song divine
Shall chant, O God, to Thee!
| The poetical works of Lucy Larcom | |