Lyra Pastoralis Songs of Nature, Church, and Home: By Richard Wilton |
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To a Friend starting for Palestine
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To a Friend starting for Palestine
(THE REV. DR. GROSART)
As birds of passage in a cage confined,When all their mates with one accord agree
To quit their shattered haunts in bush or tree,
As by a magnet to the South inclined;
Those captives, urged by the same impulse blind,
Though calm before, now struggle to be free,
And strain tow'rds sunnier lands beyond the sea,
Unvexed by gathering storm and chilling wind:
Such earnest flutterings of desire are mine,
With thee, dear friend, to wing my southward course,
And range o'er holy fields of Palestine:
But Duty bars me round with gentle force,
And bids me the instinctive hope resign
Of tracking Truth's fair stream to its sweet source.
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