 | "Until the Day Break," |  |
232
NIGHT HOPES.
“Exurge sol purissime,
Diemque da mundo suum;
Nostramque noctem illuminans,
Erroris umbram discute.”
Buchanan (Hymnus Maintinus).
Diemque da mundo suum;
Nostramque noctem illuminans,
Erroris umbram discute.”
Buchanan (Hymnus Maintinus).
The sands beneath my feet, the stars above;
The waves in front, the leafy woods behind:
Am I not compassed with the numberless,
A unit in the vast and unconfined,
'Mid these material things, a solitary mind?
The waves in front, the leafy woods behind:
Am I not compassed with the numberless,
A unit in the vast and unconfined,
'Mid these material things, a solitary mind?
233
Girt round about with God, in whom I live,
And move, and am—my portion and my peace—
I join creation's universal song,
The mingled lay of rest and weariness,
The varied hymn of hope, and fear, and joyfulness.
And move, and am—my portion and my peace—
I join creation's universal song,
The mingled lay of rest and weariness,
The varied hymn of hope, and fear, and joyfulness.
For this is not the world that is to be,
Though wondrous, both in darkness and in light,
The fair foreshadow of the perfect earth,
Freed from the mist, the tempest, and the blight,
When in one joy and song all heaven and earth unite.
Though wondrous, both in darkness and in light,
The fair foreshadow of the perfect earth,
Freed from the mist, the tempest, and the blight,
When in one joy and song all heaven and earth unite.
Amid these vastnesses I stand and gaze
Back on their past, as o'er a misty sea,
Into their grander future, looking on
And on with eager eye, more wistfully
Musing on all they mean, on all they yet shall be.
Back on their past, as o'er a misty sea,
234
And on with eager eye, more wistfully
Musing on all they mean, on all they yet shall be.
Common we call these things of earth and sea;
I call them noble, sacred, and Divine.
Man's ruins are not half so wonderful—
Cathedral, temple, tower, or pillared shrine—
As that old ocean-rock on which these starlets shine.
I call them noble, sacred, and Divine.
Man's ruins are not half so wonderful—
Cathedral, temple, tower, or pillared shrine—
As that old ocean-rock on which these starlets shine.
Man's ruins have no ancestry compared
With these unruined monuments of time,
Which, ages without number, have withstood
The shock of tempests and the waste of clime,
Still, as when reared at first, majestic and sublime.
With these unruined monuments of time,
Which, ages without number, have withstood
The shock of tempests and the waste of clime,
Still, as when reared at first, majestic and sublime.
| "Until the Day Break," | |