University of Virginia Library

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30

Hymn of Praise,

ON THE APPEARANCE OF THE NORTHERN LIGHTS.

O God, Thy glory is abroad this hour
Flushing the pure calm face of saintly Night;
Who seemeth, as she sitteth on her throne,
To gather all her powers into praise,
And in exulting joy to worship Thee
With the full beauty of her holiness.
See where among the feathered clouds flows on
A wondrous sea of rosy waves; and swords
Of brightness strike up from the Northern distance
Ev'n to the highest heavens, where the stars
Seem crowding Westward like far companies
Of Angels going up to some high feast,
As the wind moves the light clouds onwards! See
How all the spaces of the moonless sky
Are blue against the fire-flood! And, o'er all,
Broad ceaseless waves of streaming radiance flow
In a swift tide across the trembling heavens,

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31

As tho' some storm-wind coursed them from the pole!
Lo! hath an awful daybreak gloriously
Burst forth among the stars at midnight hour,
Climbing the topmost skies with giant-strides,
Impatient of the long delay that melts
The darkness into daylight? Or hath Eve
Forgotten her sweet office, and come back
From gathering in the lagging hues that trail
Behind her lord the sun, to see for once
The wonders of the night that followeth her?
Oh ever-changing beauty! Now it ebbeth,
Sucking, as doth the sea, its airy billows
Back to the margin of the sky, and now
It poureth up once more, with strength renewed
Passing its former bounds, and gushing on
In creek and bay!