MINE ear has rung, my spirit1 sunk subdued,
Sharing the strong emotion of the crowd,
When each pale brow to dread hosannas bowed
While clouds of incense mounting veiled the rood,
That glimmered like a pine-tree dimly viewed
Through Alpine vapours. Such appalling rite
Our Church prepares not, trusting to the might
Of simple truth with grace divine imbued ;
Yet will we not conceal the precious Cross,
Like men ashamed:* the Sun with his first smile
Shall greet that symbol crowning the low Pile:
And the fresh air of incense-breathing morn †
Shall wooingly embrace it; and green moss
Creep round its arms through centuries unborn.
THE encircling ground, in native turf arrayed,
Is now by solemn consecration given
To social interests, and to favouring Heaven,
And where the rugged colts their gambols played,
* The Lutherans have retained the Cross within their churches: it is to be regretted that we have not done the same.-W. W. 1822.
It has always been retained without, and is now scarcely less common within the churches of England. Did the poet confound the Cross with the Crucifix?-ED.
† Compare Gray's Elegy, stanza v.—
The breezy call of incense-breathing morn.
And wild deer bounded through the forest glade,
Unchecked as when by merry Outlaw driven,
Shall hymns of praise resound at morn and even ;
And soon, full soon, the lonely Sexton's spade
Shall wound the tender sod. Encincture small,
But infinite its grasp of weal and woe!1
Hopes, fears, in never-ending ebb and flow ;—
The spousal trembling, and the "dust to dust,"
The prayers, the contrite struggle, and the trust
That to the Almighty Father looks through all.
OPEN your gates, ye everlasting Piles!
Types of the spiritual Church which God hath reared;
Not loth we quit the newly-hallowed sward
And humble altar, 'mid your sumptuous aisles
To kneel, or thrid your intricate defiles,
Or down the nave to pace in motion slow;
Watching, with upward eye,2 the tall tower grow
And mount, at every step, with living wiles
Instinct to rouse the heart and lead the will
By a bright ladder to the world above.
Open your gates, ye Monuments of love
Divine! thou Lincoln, on thy sovereign hill!
Thou, stately York! and Ye, whose splendours cheer
Isis and Cam, to patient Science dear!
*This Sonnet was published in Time's Telescope, September 1823, p. 260.-ED.
INSIDE OF KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL,
TAX not the royal Saint* with vain expense,
With ill-matched aims the Architect who planned-
Albeit labouring for a scanty band
Of white-robed Scholars only—this immense
And glorious Work of fine intelligence !
Give all thou canst; high Heaven rejects the lore
Of nicely-calculated less or more;
So deemed the man who fashioned for the sense
These lofty pillars, spread that branching roof
Self-poised, and scooped into ten thousand cells,
Where light and shade repose, where music dwells
Lingering and wandering on as loth to die;
Like thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof
That they were born for immortality.
WHAT awful perspective! while from our sight
With gradual stealth the lateral windows hide
Their Portraitures, their stone-work glimmers, dyed
In the soft chequerings of a sleepy light.
Martyr, or King, or sainted Eremite,
Whoe'er ye be, that thus, yourselves unseen,
Imbue your prison-bars with solemn sheen,
Their portraiture the lateral windows hide,
Glimmers their corresponding stone-work, dyed
With
* King Henry VI., who founded King's College, Cambridge.-ED.
Shine on, until ye fade with coming Night!-
But, from the arms of silence-list! O list!
The music bursteth into second life;
The notes luxuriate, every stone is kissed
By sound, or ghost of sound, in mazy strife;
Heart-thrilling strains, that cast, before the eye
Of the devout, a veil of ecstasy!
THEY dreamt not of a perishable home
Who thus could build.*
Be mine, in hours of fear
Or grovelling thought, to seek a refuge here ;
Or through the aisles of Westminster to roam;
Where bubbles burst, and folly's dancing foam
Melts, if it cross the threshold; where the wreath
Of awe-struck wisdom droops: or let my path
Lead to that younger Pile, whose sky-like dome †
Hath typified by reach of daring art
Infinity's embrace; whose guardian crest,
The silent Cross, among the stars shall spread
As now, when She hath also seen her breast
Filled with mementos, satiate with its part
Of grateful England's overflowing Dead.
GLORY to God! and to the Power who came
In filial duty, clothed with love divine,
* Compare The Excursion, book v. l. 145
Not raised in nice proportions was the pile;
But large and massy; for duration built.
St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by Sir Christopher Wren (1675-1710). -ED.
That made his human tabernacle shine
Like Ocean burning with purpureal flame;
Or like the Alpine Mount, that takes its name
From roseate hues,* far kenned at morn and even,
In hours of peace, or when the storm is driven
Along the nether region's rugged frame!
Earth prompts-Heaven urges; let us seek the light,
Studious of that pure intercourse begun
When first our infant brows their lustre won;
So, like the Mountain, may we grow more bright
From unimpeded commerce with the Sun,
. At the approach of all-involving night.
WHY sleeps the future, as a snake enrolled,
Coil within coil, at noon-tide ? For the WORD
Yields, if with unpresumptuous faith explored,
Power at whose touch the sluggard shall unfold
His drowsy rings. Look forth that Stream behold,
THAT STREAM upon whose bosom we have passed 6
Floating at ease while nations have effaced
Nations, and Death has gathered to his fold
Long lines of mighty Kings—look forth, my Soul ! (Nor in this vision be thou slow to trust)
The living Waters, less and less by guilt
Stained and polluted, brighten as they roll,
Till they have reached the eternal City-built
For the perfected Spirits of the just!
* Some say that Monte Rosa takes its name from a belt of rock at its summit -a very unpoetical and scarcely a probable supposition.-W. W.
|