Religious Poems

Excerpt

SLOW through the solemn air, in silence sailing,
     Borne by mysterious angels, strong and fair,
   She sleeps at last, blest dreams her eyelids veiling,
     Above this weary world of strife and care.

    Lo how she passeth!--dreamy, slow, and calm:
     Scarce wave those broad, white wings, so silvery bright;
   Those cloudy robes, in star-emblazoned folding,
     Sweep mistily athwart the evening light.

    Far, far below, the dim, forsaken earth,
     The foes that threaten, or the friends that weep;
   Past, like a dream, the torture and the pain:
     For so He giveth his beloved sleep.

    The restless bosom of the surging ocean
     Gives back the image as the cloud floats o'er,
   Hushing in glassy awe his troubled motion;
     For one blest moment he complains no more.

    Like the transparent golden floor of heaven,
     His charmed waters lie as in a dream,
   And glistening wings, and starry robes unfolding,
     And serious angel eyes far downward gleam.

    O restless sea! thou seemest all enchanted
     By that sweet vision of celestial rest;
   Where are the winds and tides thy peace that haunted,--
     So still thou seemest, so glorified and blest!

    Ah, sea! to-morrow, that sweet scene forgotten,
     Dark tides and tempests shall thy bosom rear;
   And thy complaining waves, with restless motion,
     Shall toss their hands in their old wild despair.

    So o'er our hearts sometimes the sweet, sad story
     Of suffering saints, borne homeward crowned and blest,
   Shines down in stillness with a tender glory,
     And makes a mirror there of breathless rest.