Page:Hemans in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 33 1833.pdf/4

 And therefore from that radiant summit's crown, To dim Desertion is by Thee cast down; Behold! thy child submissively hath bow'd, Shine on him thro' the cloud!

Let the now darken'd earth and curtain'd Heaven Back to his vision with Thy face be given! Bear him on High once more, But on Thy strength to soar, And wrapt and still'd by that o'ershadowing might, Forth on the empyreal blaze to look with chasten'd sight.

Or if it be, that like the ark's lone dove, My thoughts go forth, and find no resting-place, No sheltering home of sympathy and love, In the responsive bosoms of my race, And back return, a darkness and a weight, Till my unanswer'd heart grows desolate; Yet, yet sustain me, Holiest!—I am vow'd To solemn service high; And shall the spirit, for thy tasks endow'd, Sink on the threshold of the sanctuary, Fainting beneath the burden of the day, Because no human tone, Unto the altar-stone, Of that pure spousal Fane inviolate, Where it should make eternal Truth its mate, May cheer the sacred solitary way?

Oh! be the whisper of thy voice within, Enough to strengthen! Be the hope to win A more deep-seeing homage for Thy name, Far, far beyond the burning dream of Fame! Make me Thine only!—Let me add but one To those refulgent steps all undefiled, Which glorious minds have piled Thro' bright self-offering, earnest, child-like, low, For mounting to Thy throne! And let my soul, upborne On wings of inner morn, Find, in illumined secrecy, the sense Of that blest work, its own deep recompense.