I journey, wondering at thy shortened day,
All things of time, and dreams of sense and
sight
Dissolve like mist beneath the morning ray :
Since for eternity one perfect life
Showed forth one love in one perfected
thought,
Since God spake clear, what need of doubt
and strife ?
The heart of heaven makes man's anguish
nought.
VOICES. 99
IV.
Bright soul ! sweet flower of all beauteous
thought,
Religion's image, radiant child of love,
All good and true and tender work is thine,
A melody of grace, a hymn of joy,
To lighten heavy hearts, make doubt ashamed,
And thrill our being with resounding praise.
Mortal immortal, masterpiece of time,
Why treadest thou this changing isle of dust,
Thyself soon perishing from this poor stage
Into the night ? from God thou surely earnest ;
Substance made moving could not flash from
blindness
So pure a shrine, nor chaos build that heart.
Constraining power, blest hope of a dark
world,
Angel of peace, heaven's gleam in the
storm's rack,
Even the wrongdoer hears an answering
voice
Within him, worshipping as thou goest by,
God keep one ever such as thee on earth !
More true than truth, than paradise more
fair,
To have known thee is to subdue despair.
ioo VOICES.
v.
Blest soul of heaven's eternal truth of good,
Dear noble presence of inspiring love,
In thy clear light the path of mortal care
Lay straight and plain through danger and
distress,
With pain our friend and death our fixed
adieu,
To that fair region where all partings cease
And faithful hearts fulfil the task of God :
Thy voice so tender bore an angel's song,
Thy glorious smile made earth too near to
heaven ;
If in full joyance thou hadst not passed forth
Days had been worshipped and thy home
divine ;
But since thou art not here, all seen is strange,
Life hath no ease, corruption no despair,
I long to breathe but in immortal air.
VOICES. ioi
VI.
TO A PATRIOT.
Right on ! though blocked in every forward
path,
Right on ! though Fate breeds horrors day by
day,
And serpents cling to thee from Stygian pools
Stirred in their murderous mud by thy fierce
light,
Keep still thy heart, and raise thy trumpet
blast
Untrembling clear above the crackling thorns
And legioned follies which tease meagre souls,
With callous counsellors whose creed is dust ;
Thy lightning stroke has torn the chains of
hate,
Which turn glad life into a slavish march,
Thy pity shineth under every star,
And suns unrisen shall beam on fairer fields,
Blessing thy manhood that in timorous days
Bore hope unblinded to the gates of hell.
102 VOICES.
VII.
Why toil, if labour be not means of good ?
Why rest, if day draw not its hope from
dark?
Why live, if life be not a conquering march,
Or breathe, if breathing may no creature
bless ?
Our strength is faith, our reverence is worth,
And in obedience man fulfils his law ;
Erring is dying, ignorance disease,
And feeble counsel saps a nation's heart,
Man has to know, the stars in order run,
Unconscious right rebukes fore-reasoned
wrong ;
Forget old self, new self is human weal ;
If wisdom circulates and right hath limbs,
Blood finds the heart, and age finds peace in
life,
There is no loss but loss of hope and love,
And bodies dying bid more loving live.
VOICES. 103
VIII.
If nature, smitten with too late remorse,
Creating hearts that feed their love for loss,
Should turn and bring the lords of conscious
life
To feel no memory and forecast no pain,
Born, growing, dying in half-happy trance,
No more in wild lament beholding death
That crowds all nobleness to silent graves,
No more uplifting sense and prayer and work
To one high mind that never did respond,
Then what should one spared from the kind
decline
And looking boldly on that vast release
Say in himself, the last of suffering souls ?
God, if thou livest, bring back those children
lost,
Make them in agony at one with Thee !
104 VOICES.
IX.
Seek not thy God in wonders or in signs,
Or through the service of an empty heart ;
He is not man who to mere words inclines
Or conjures faith with any sudden art ;
He is no king to deal rewards or pains,
Or stranger to be pleased with rare regard ;
He loves not jewelled shrines or pillared fanes
Where pride of sense the humble prayer hath
marred ;
His marvels live in every place and hour,
Through every moment countless wonders
shine,
He changeth not though man may smile or
lower,
But every creature moves in the divine.
Not in the showy pomp of outward things
Our spirits rest Truth hides from careless
eyes
Nor yet from heights where reason plies her
wings
Behold full wisely the unmeasured skies.
Barren the icy calm of hard-won peaks,
Struck by all sunshine, but retaining none,
Better to grieve where woe to sorrow speaks
In the dark city, than exult alone.
VOICES. 105
Seek then thy God in all the good He
gives
He hides His leaven in the hearts of men,
He striveth ever against ill, and lives
Thy nearest friend, thy soul is born again.
io6 VOICES.
x.
Guard well thy steps beyond the beaten
way,
For many dangers compass venturous turns ;
If thou hast left the credulous crowd behind,
Make not credulity thy guide abroad ;
Better the known deceit, where thou art true,
Than truthful things with thee their false
high priest ;
Better the myth of mirage than of mine,
The day-born phantom than the earth-born
flame,
The doubtful dogma than the new-hatched
sign,
Wisdom begins where knowledge finds her
goal.
Noble to spurn the dross of crabbed creeds,
More noble still to weld the white-hot truth
Into bridge girders crossing bog and stream,
Firm as a rock above the wilds of doubt,
A way for armies to the promised land.
VOICES. 107
XL
Where is the path of ever-hallowed joy,
The life worth living and our true content ?
Not in the thronging vanities of crowds,
The credit of convention, dull and dense,
The show of wit, or press for short applause,
Or heavy sports, and skill devoid of sense.
No bloody pastime can be God's high call
To reasoning spirits, or the end of life,
If soul be in us, soul must break the wall
Of creature custom, and command the strife.
Fair nature under reason must have sway,
The breezy fields to brooding thought give
health,
Our orbit still must her good laws obey,
Her pastures profit more than choking wealth.
Rule is most honoured which most freedom
gives,
And within rule all worthy freedom lives.
io8 VOICES.
XII.
He who through temperate and mastered life
With single eye his chosen work performs,
Swerves not to right or left, but strong in
will
Rides through the blasts which weaker craft
may sink,
Though little to the world in talk or fame,
Conquers more nobly than that Caesar Gaul,
Who reared an empire by the strokes of
force,
With blood cemented, and in blood ere long
With dire disruption broken and dissolved,
For virtue strengthens with each conquest
won,
And the foe passions, after years of war
Subdued, rise never to dislodge their lord ;
God gives the increase, power comes un-
sought,
And light celestial crowns that soldier's
brow,
So fate may thwart and rankling evils rise,
He stands their match and still victorious
dies.
VOICES. 109
XIII.
Come, hallowed Spirit of the souls of men,
Sustain the heart that hath no help but Thee r
Dissolve these thronging troops of bitter cares
That sting and harry us to abject graves,
Be with us in all deeds and bless each thought,
Make every duty be a task from Thee ;
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on
earth,
Thy will is good, O let the good be done
On earth as ever it is done in heaven,
The full joy of the life of perfect souls
The harmony of comprehending Thee.
O burn the blight thou hatest from the world,
Lift the thick darkness that breeds plagues
and crimes
And save, O save, the souls that trust in
Thee.
no VOICES.
XIV.
O Mystery, mute Spirit of the world,
Breathing through all, silent amid all voices,
Silent and strong, unseen however sought,
Life of all being, moving among Thy blind,
Blind matter, blind animal, blind souls of men,
O Thou, not he whom in a thousand shapes
Men worship and call God, but One not far,
Whose spirit loves the loving, and doth come
Softly each moment to thy children's cry
And fightest evil through the toils and cares
Of struggling creatures towards some distant
dawn,
Source of all Right and Light, in this vexed
nook
Of mis-creation, justified unfaith,
Maimed bodies and minds warped with sore
distress,
If thou art mighty, make thy goodness strong,
That we uncrushed may love thee perfectly
With heart and soul, nor need these mills of
pain,
Nor human wrecks to mark the path of
wrong.
VOICES. in
XV.
Spirit who dwellest where all wisdom dwells,
In light eternal centering all life,
Shed Thy pure strength upon our mortal
ranks,
That when we lift our eyes in trembling hope
Faith may transform us from low penitence
To songs of gladness, confident and free,
That while we labour at appointed work,
All hours may pass in communing with Thee.
Learning Thy wisdom that shall change all ill
And bring even Fate a captive to Thy law,
Then grant us plenitude of love and zeal
Strong constant virtue, which alone becomes
Man in thy image ; so embracing sleep,
In the last day our souls shall wake unbound.
112 WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
OCT. 15, 1892.
CALL him not dead whose life is in the ages,
Whose body bindeth him to earth no more,
Dust joineth dust, but through ascending
stages,
Soul maketh voyage to the unseen shore.
Give him not burial, give earth to earth,
That form which God most wondrously en-
dowed,
There leave it tranquil, even from his birth
He far transcended shapen sun and cloud.
If heaven hold him, sing no dirges here,
Thy clinging thought is nearer tombs than he,
Mountains of stones would cover but a bier,
Spread broad thy sail upon the boundless sea.
Thy life is free ; thou canst increase his glory,
Build him a monument in truth and deed,
Thou canst make nobler the great human
story,
Live his best melody, the world hath need.
BEFORE SUNRISE. 113
BEFORE SUNRISE.
THE dawn's tide flows, the pale moon wanes
and sinks
Before the splendour of our earth's great lord,
Appointed ruler of our little lives,
And all the motions of his planet sons,
Dispenser of light, warmth, and living force
According to the will of the Supreme,
Most high, who dwells in all and nourishes
All good through time to some celestial end.
We wot not, hemmed in by the savage brake
And underwood of ancient wilderness,
And clouded in by frequent dismal mists,
Whither we tend, but ever and anon
The music of a higher being wakes
And bears us speechless to Olympian courts
Whence soon we pass and fall. Within our
hearts,
I doubt not, is a sun as great, as bright,
And brighter far to him who clears his gaze
And sees the sky-glow through the breaking
crust
Of the dark mines wherein man's soul hath
toiled
And struggles upward resolute through pain,
Till that immortal sun proclaims new birth
With more than life and more than temporal
light.
If this I doubted, I were dead indeed.
1 1 4 TRANS LA TIONS.
TRANSLATIONS.
SONNET 44. EROICI FURORL GIOR-
DANO BRUNO.
SUCH high desires cannot remove the veil
From this vexed mind, on holy splendour
bent ;
The heart, which thought would fain create
anew,
The heart, which vainly seeks one hour of
ease,
Finds no retreat, but tossed from wave to
wave,
Misses the loveliness of sweet repose.
These eyes which should be closed in softest
sleep
Are all night open with complaint and grief.
What care and art will soothe my senses worn ?
What balm bring solace to my straining
sight ?
O Spirit, tell, what time or place can heal
Thy bitter groaning and thy pain intense ?
And thou, my heart, for sufferings so deep
Where can I find the offering of peace ?
Where will the soul give you the tribute due,
O pain-wrought mind, O eyes and heart of
woe ?
TRANSLATIONS. 115
NAHE DES GELIEBTEN. GOETHE.
(Music by F. Schubert.}
I THINK of thee when rays of sunny gladness
From ocean stream ;
I think of thee when deep in wells of sadness
The moon doth gleam.
Thou art not lost when o'er the distant high-
way
The storm-cloud lowers ; -
In darkest night when on the rocky byway
The wanderer cowers ;
I hear thee still when loud with hollow
thunder
The billow breaks
When listening oft amid the silent forest
Thy music wakes.
Though sundered far, I live without repining,
Sure thou art near,
The sun goes down ; behold, the stars are
shining ;
Would thou wert here !
1 1 6 TRANS LA TIONS.
AN DIE MUSIK. SCHOBER.
(Music by F. Schubert.}
" DU HOLDE KUNST."
THOU sacred Art, how oft in dreary moments,
When life's wild waves in gray confusion
break,
Hast thou my heart with warmest love en-
kindled,
And in thy peace hast bid a higher being
wake,
Hast bid a higher being wake.
Oft from thy lyre an air hath flowed appealing
With sweet and holy harmony to me,
A blessed heaven of better days revealing
Thou Art divine, my loving thanks to thee,
Thou art divine, all thanks to thee.
"ANFANGS WOLLT' ICH FAST VERZAGEN."
H. HEINE.
(Music by R. Schumann.)
WHEN it came, I fell despairing
Blind and burdened, bent and low,
And it seemed beyond my bearing,
Yet I bore it ask not how !
TRANS LA TIONS. 1 1 7
STILLE THRANEN. J. KERNER.
(Music by R, Schumann. )
FROM sleep untroubled risen,
Through flowers thy footsteps fall,
Beholdest radiant heaven
Spread glory over all.
While thou in peace wast sleeping
From pain and sorrow free,
Heaven all night long was weeping
Its tears unknown to thee.
Hearts have their still dark sorrow
Eyes rain unseen in woe,
But on the shining morrow
Fair smiles are all ye know
1 1 8 TRA NSLA TIONS.
"DU BIST WIE EINE BLUME."
H. HEINE.
(Music by R. Schumann.}
THOU art a flower's image
So holy, pure, and kind,
Thy tenderness beholding
Love hallows all my mind.
It seems as though a blessing
Arose and filled my heart,
A prayer that God possessing,
Would keep thee as thou art.
TRANSLATIONS. 119
"WILLST DU DEIN HERZ MIR
GEBEN."
(Quoted by Beethoven.}
O WILT thou give thine heart ?
Then let the token be
That none shall bear a part
In thoughts I share with thee.
Let love that makes us blest,
Reign deep in soul and will,
Let greatest joys and best
Be hidden, calm, and still.
1 20 TRANSLA TIONS.
IHRE STIMME. GRAF VON PLATEN.
(Music by R. Schumann,)
" LASS TIEF IN DIR MICH LESEN."
O READ me the deep wonder.
The magic of thy voice,
O keep not ever under
The current of its joys.
So many words keep thronging
All empty to the ear,
And while we listen longing
They vanish into air.
Yet far away thou speakest
As when thou present art,
Thy tone when sounding weakest,
Is mighty in my heart.
So kindled, so appealing,
My spirit glows within ;
Thy voice and all my feeling
Are too divinely kin.
TRANSLATIONS. 121
HEIDEN ROSLEIN. GOETHE.
{Music by Fr. Schubert?)
BAIRNIE spied a rosebud blow,
Rosebud on the fair lea,
Fresh and bright as morning glow,
Quick he ran its grace to know,
And it pleased him rarely.
Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
Rosebud on the fair lea.
Bairnie cried, " I'll break thee off,
Blooming on the fair lea! "
Rose made answer : " Then I prick.
And thou'll not forget me quick,
Therefore touch me warily."
Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
Blooming on the fair lea.
But the boy so rude and rough
Plucked the rose unheeding,
Rose turned round and stang enough,
Ache and grief were vain rebuff,
Nought availed her pleading.
Rosebud, rosebud, rosebud red,
Blooming on the fair lea.
122 TRANSLA TIONS.
" DU MEINE SEELE, DU MEIN HERZ."
( Words by Fr. Rilckert. Music by R. Schumann.}
" WIDMUNG."
To thee my soul, to thee my heart,
My pain, my prayer, my nobler part,
To thee my spirit's heaven and light
I lift and lose the cares of night :
My firmament in which I move
To glow for ever in thy love !
O thou art rest, O thou art peace,
Blest spring wherein my troubles cease ;
O Love, thou mak'st me king from thrall,
In thee I reign and live for all ;
Thy glance doth give me power unknown,
And raise me wondering to thy throne.
My heart, my truth, for whom I sigh,
My law supreme, for ever nigh,
Thou life in which, no longer low,
My heaven of love, I move and glow,
Thou soul of good, my worthier Self.
TRANS LA TIONS. 1 23
THE SONG OF NORNA.
("GESANG DER NORNA." SCHUBERT.)
MY path is lone, and dark my way
O'er gulf and stream and ocean deep,
The wild waves know my Runic lay,
Fall glassy smooth and cease to leap.
The wild waves know my Runic lay,
The seas are smooth, the torrent still,
But heart of man in storm and fray
Scarce knows its own beclouded will.
One hour is mine in all the year
To range with wail and moan the deep ;
'Tis then I rise with beacon clear,
That flame dies down, I fall to sleep.
The beacon burns : 'tis dead of night :
Hail ! Magnus daughters ; hear, O hear !
For you my wondrous tale is dight !
Awake, arise ! O turn and hear !
124 ORISONS AND HYMNS.
ORISONS AND HYMNS.
RICHES.
CHRIST is come to ask thy life,
Bring Him all thou hast and art ;
Earth can spare her treasures well,
Heaven cannot spare thy heart.
Rest in God thy mind and will,
Break the load of cares away,
Breathe the air of perfect faith,
Let thy strength be as the day.
ORISONS AND HYMNS. 125
SURGAMUS.
CHRISTIAN ! rise, and act thy creed,
Let thy prayer be in thy deed.
Seek the right, perform the true ;
Thou canst make thy life anew.
Hearts around thee sink with care,
Thou canst help their load to bear,
Thou canst bring inspiring light,
Arm their faltering wills to fight.
Wrong shall die in open day,
Virtue shines beyond decay,
Falsehood flees from candour's face,
Health reflects eternal grace.
Principalities and powers
Still beset thy weaker hours.
Give them battle, seal their doom,
Angel-guests shall fill their room.
Let thine alms be hope and joy,
And thy worship God's employ ;
Give Him thanks in humble zeal,
Learning all His will to feel.
Come then, Law divine, and reign,
Freest faith assailed in vain,
Perfect love bereft of fear,
Born in heaven and radiant here.
126 ORISONS AND HYMNS.
OTPANO2.
GOD'S lamps are stars and suns,
Their light is freely given,
And when their work is done,
That light returns to heaven.
God's field is on the earth,
He maketh fruits increase,
And from its very birth
Prepared it for our lease.
God's angels are with men,
And win them to His side ;
Their souls return again
When we say, " They have died ! "
And every work and thought
In life which marked the soul
To Him in truth is brought,
That He may make it whole.
CHILD ! though darkness close thee round
So that scarce thou drawest breath,
And the pleasant world is drowned,
And thou touchest only death,
ORISONS AND HYMNS. 127
Know, that if thy spirit bear
Through the long cold night of pain,
Thou shalt rise beyond despair,
And thy life shall not be vain.
WILL of our Father, infinite radiance,
Power of the Holiest, clear our dim sight,
Spirit of love, descending from heaven,
Bind us as brethren, and lead us to light.
O GOD, whose voice the angels hear,
Whose music beats through worlds un-
known,
Inform our hearts with power divine,
And raise pale doubt thy name to own.
Pour forth on us thy vital will,
Make plain the clouded coasts of heaven,
Bless all the people bowed in gloom
With kindled hope and burning zeal.
O Thou whose ocean's tide hath filled
Creation's space with kindly sway !
Touch every home, from shore to shore,
With gentle truth's immortal ray.
O Thou who guardest great and small,
Whose children own Thee Love Sublime !
Make strong each heart that on Thee waits,
Break down the pictured screen of time.
128 ORISONS AND HYMNS.
O Thou whose paths are sown with stars,
Whose patience tendeth every child,
We thank thy love for life supreme,
We praise for matchless hope thy word.
The daily toil, the flowery field,
Shall concord sound and rapture breathe
The hosts of darkness prostrate fallen
Shall rise redeemed to greet the morn.
O Thou whose reign the ages crave,
Whose light unseen inspheres us all,
We lift, to join the choir on high,
Our hearts' weak praise on wings of song.
Be Thou about us all our years,
May all good works through Thee increase,
Let sweetest calm ensue from tears,
From earth's brief war Thy perfect peace.
COME, Holy Spirit, kind to all,
Arise on hearts where pride is slain,
Inspire the weak with passion high,
And break in light o'er seas of pain.
Thou wilt have mercy, that I know ;
I dare not ask Thy special care,
But lift my soul to thy good Power,
And melt in tears my wordless prayer.
ORISONS AND HYMNS. 129
The least of earth who turns to Thee
Is child beloved in angels' view ;
The present Soul of Life, unseen,
Brings gifts of grace and joy most true.
I know Thee still, the Source of might,
I crave Thee still, the perfect Love ;
Not any wandering far from right
Can make heaven's blessed law remove.
In Thee, O Soul of every good,
Of highest beauty, truth revealed,
We live and move, and pierce the veil
To glory's bright and boundless field.
COME unto me, ye weary,
And I will give you rest ;
Come unto me, ye wounded,
For they that mourn are blest.
Come unto me, ye prisoners,
And heaven shall be your room ;
Come unto me, ye hated,
For I have known your gloom.
Come unto me, ye laden,
My love exceeds your days ;
Come unto me, ye wanderers,
My tears are on your ways.
9
130 ORISONS AND HYMNS.
Come unto me, ye hungry,
The Bread of Life is near ;
Come, all ye parched and thirsty,
The spring of health is here.
Come unto me, ye children,
Your angels ever there
In heaven behold our Father,
And ye are each His care.
Come unto me, ye righteous ;
In might rejoice, ye strong ;
Let music blend with brightness,
And light abide in song.
Not as the world, I give you
A wealth that all may spend,
A joy that never faileth,
A treasure without end.
The grace of God be with you ;
Your faith shall mountains move.
And yet unconquered regions
Shall own the reign of love.
BREAK through the earth, arise in grace,
Spread forth thy leaves to drink the light
May tender airs make sweet and strong
Thy flower and branch, O Tree of Life !
ORISONS AND HYMNS. 131
The sky above, the ground beneath,
Shall bear thee all their streams of good ;
Thy root shall hold, while high and higher
Thy noble growth exalts the vale.
The bloom of faith, the fruit of power,
Shall fill our hearts with peace sublime,
Thy glorious dome's imbowered choir
Shall haven listening grief in song.
The gathering nations, armed for right,
Shall counsel take beneath thy shade,
And heavenward anthems, hymns of love,
Lift every human soul in praise.
THE Church of Christ ariseth
In silent beauty strong ;
Old jostling falsehoods, crumbling,
Disclose the plan of God.
The Church of Christ is lovely,
And blesseth every soul ;
Her only law is goodness,
Her only hatred sin.
The Church of Christ is friendship
To every earnest heart ;
Obedience, work, and healing
True mind and conscience clear.
132 ORISONS AND HYMNS.
The Church of Christ is reigning,
Of God in lives of men ;
Best thought and highest reason,
Love conquering ill and pain.
The Church of Christ is moving
From shadow into light,
From desert into pasture,
From weakness into might.
The Church of Christ is freedom
And reverential peace,
An evergrowing kingdom,
A Will that cannot cease ;
A glory born of saving,
Like suns that warm the worlds,
A fountain-spring of ardour,
A living grace for all ;
A treasure borne to heaven
By sighs too deep for words,
A strong and kind communion,
And deeds whose soul is prayer.
The Church shall live in candour
And temperance and praise ;
And ever-hopeful patience
And joy shall bless her ways.
ORISONS AND HYMNS. 133
Her gates shall open widely
To every child of man ;
And every earnest seeker
Shall make the Church of God.
UNWIN BROTHERS,
CH1LWORTH AND LONDON.
JAN 2 7 1386
A 000 560 745 2