 | Sequences, Hymns, and Other Ecclesiastical Verses |  |
94
No Nightingales.
“How glorious were the nightingales last night,
'Neath the dim, April, warm, half moonlit, sky!
As from wood-choirs and temples of delight,
The dewy streamside grass, the black-thorn nigh,
They poured their melody!”
'Neath the dim, April, warm, half moonlit, sky!
As from wood-choirs and temples of delight,
The dewy streamside grass, the black-thorn nigh,
They poured their melody!”
“Indeed! I heard it not! I looked around,
And deemed that night and silence had their fill:
From forest, fallow, distant lane, no sound,
Save the dull dronings of the watermill:
The Nightingales were still.”
And deemed that night and silence had their fill:
From forest, fallow, distant lane, no sound,
Save the dull dronings of the watermill:
The Nightingales were still.”
“O dull of ear to hear! but mark thou this:
My ears were sharpened by a bed of pain;
Thus, out of sorrow, God works often bliss,
And that flits by, and this shall still remain:
—The Nightingales no strain!!”
My ears were sharpened by a bed of pain;
Thus, out of sorrow, God works often bliss,
And that flits by, and this shall still remain:
—The Nightingales no strain!!”
95
But sursum corda! may it not be so,
That those sweet strains on Jordan's further side,
Unheard by souls who only this world know,
May yet to them not wholly be denied
Who drink the cup of woe?
That those sweet strains on Jordan's further side,
Unheard by souls who only this world know,
May yet to them not wholly be denied
Who drink the cup of woe?
| Sequences, Hymns, and Other Ecclesiastical Verses | |