 | Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious |  |
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BUNSEN TO HIS FRIEND ROTHE.
Being the Dedication of Bunsen's “Philosophy of Universal History.”
Once we wove the bond of friendship on the Capitolian hill,
While thou wast, with power of spirit, making known Our Father's will;
While we both, in faith and patience, laboured at the work sublime
Which the nobler soul of manhood consecrates to God through time.
While thou wast, with power of spirit, making known Our Father's will;
While we both, in faith and patience, laboured at the work sublime
Which the nobler soul of manhood consecrates to God through time.
Thirty years have since passed o'er us, bringing care and bringing gloom;
Youthful strength and joy have vanished, youthful hope has lost its bloom;
But our early aspirations yet retain the force of youth,
Strong as when at first they urged us toward the goal of heavenly truth;
Youthful strength and joy have vanished, youthful hope has lost its bloom;
But our early aspirations yet retain the force of youth,
Strong as when at first they urged us toward the goal of heavenly truth;
And our early friendship, changeless through the time that onward rolls,
Draws us both, in soul united, toward the fatherland of souls.
For we know the human spirit has on earth by flashes shone,
And in God's eternal kingdom shall become His living throne;
Draws us both, in soul united, toward the fatherland of souls.
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And in God's eternal kingdom shall become His living throne;
And we know that God is calling on our Fatherland again;
And we feel a heavenly Spirit breathing on the hearts of men;
And we trust that all our nation's wounds and sufferings He will heal,
And His power before the enfranchised German nation will reveal.
And we feel a heavenly Spirit breathing on the hearts of men;
And we trust that all our nation's wounds and sufferings He will heal,
And His power before the enfranchised German nation will reveal.
That which lives for self must perish in the flood of death unwept,
But what lives for human glory in the ark shall safe be kept;
Every word, and note, and image, glorified by thought Divine,
Through the night of earthly ages, to the latest years will shine.
But what lives for human glory in the ark shall safe be kept;
Every word, and note, and image, glorified by thought Divine,
Through the night of earthly ages, to the latest years will shine.
From the temple that we gazed on when the morn of faith was red,
I have saved a fragment, spared me in the time of want and dread.
Bend thy soul—thou canst, O Teacher!—toward the Builder's plan of old,
That our spirits in the ruins all its glory may behold.
I have saved a fragment, spared me in the time of want and dread.
Bend thy soul—thou canst, O Teacher!—toward the Builder's plan of old,
That our spirits in the ruins all its glory may behold.
| Sonnets and Other Poems Chiefly Religious | |