Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/308

 29S CONSOLATIONS OF SOLITUDE

Accusing or excusing, ever near,

Judging my love, my hate, my hope, my fear,

Sifting even dreams as well as thought and action,

Compacts dissolving, sundering the bands of faction.

With noiseless flight, thy spirit on viewless wings

Strengthens weak hands, and the strong arm unstrings,

Makes slaves go free, and can make slaves of kings.

Thou governest all — the sailor on the wave.

The soldier in his tent, the hermit in his cave.

The conqueror at his feast, the mourner at the grave.

Thou reignest in heaven, the archangels worship thee.

Twin child with Love, first-born of Deity 1

No seraph from thy face so far can fly,

But thou wilt fix and hold him with thine eye,

Wilt find him out in the most secret place, —

Where'er he turns, he must behold thy face.

Thou art o'er all, in all, throughout all Time and Space;

And, if this earth and the sweet light of day

E'er in chaotic darkness melt away.

Thy deep low voice, 'mongst the celestial spheres,

Will still sound on throughout the unending years.

There wilt thou dwell the immortal hosts among,

Uttering thy runes severe in deathless song,

Falsehood from truth unravelling, right from wrong.

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