Page:Pocahontas, and Other Poems.djvu/47



on, for ever, in thy glorious robe

Of terror and of beauty.—Yea, flow on,—

Unfathom'd and resistless. God hath set

His rainbow on thy forehead, and the cloud

Mantled around thy feet. And He doth give

Thy voice of thunder power to speak of Him

Eternally,—bidding the lip of man

Keep silence, and upon thine altar pour

Incense of awe-struck praise.

Earth fears to lift

The insect-trump that tells her trifling joys,

And fleeting triumphs, 'mid the peal sublime

Of thy tremendous hymn. Proud Ocean shrinks

Back from thy brotherhood, and all his waves

Retire abash'd. For he hath need to sleep

Sometimes, like a spent labourer, calling home

His boisterous billows, from their vexing play,

To a long, dreary calm: but thy strong tide

Faints not, nor e'er, with failing heart, forgets

Its everlasting lesson,—night nor day.

The morning stars, that hail'd creation's birth,

Heard thy hoarse anthem, mixing with their song