THE tale is told; the Hours are numbered now;
Earth, the great Mother, Children bears no more;
And Man knows all that he can ever know.
Being not Knowing, on the further shore
Of the Pacifick Deep, where Hades sails,
The Ship of Souls, awaits him, as of yore;
Lost Eden, but regained; he feels the gales,
Of this more blessed Araby, salute
The populous Bark, and their delight inhales,
With pleasure motionless, with pleasure mute.
-Billowless Gulf, upon thy bosom moves
Nor ship, nor galley, Ocean absolute !
Nought save yon Ark, which every Angel loves,
May hover o'er that Ocean of Repose,
With those bright Spirits, those descending Doves,
Ocean profound, that neither ebbs nor flows;
O glorious JAH! wilt thou to her not be
Broad world of streams and rivers, where none goes
Save thy Beloved in her Majesty.
HYMN OF THE FLOOD,
From the Ark.
THE world of waters is about us,
The voices of the storm are high,
All is wrath and wreck without us-
All within, security.
Hark! to that shriek our vessel swerveth-
Some desperate wretch clings to it!—vain!
None but us her keel preserveth-
Silence on she speeds again;
Bounds o'er the billows proud and lonely,
A thing of life, she stems the flood-
Nought the peril bides, save only
The Ark of Almighty God.
Hark! to the surges heaving, dashing-
We rise, and reel, and rock-and, lo!
All above the window flashing,
Lightnings ever come and go!
Behold! the gleaming spray is o'er
It rushes in a tide of doom-
Heaven is ravished from before us,
Earth is universal gloom!
When will the face of heaven brighten,
And the dread Curse of God depart,
And the field and forest lighten,
And the aspect and the heart
Of man and beast, and all things living,
With renovation, love and joy ;
Jubilant in God forgiving,
Who would prosper not destroy?
Being! mysterious Word! Eternal Son!
Oh, Life of Light!-The Sea of the Abyss
Covers the sands, and Time can gather none !
The Shadow breaks that pageant Glass of his,
Still gazing on the Vessel while she soars,
And, as on Voyage to the Isle of Bliss,
Like a sea-bird, her noiseless way explores.
(Having risen unperceived by URIEL, now exclaims behind him)
HIS Bow was bent! Thou Great and Most Glorious!
Was thine ire 'gainst the Rivers wild?
Was thine anger against the Sea?
The Mountains confest Thee victorious-
The waters o'erflowing and tempest-piled
Passed by, and the Deep raised his voice unto
Thee,
And lifted his hands to thy Deity!
The Sun and the Moon in their dwellings stood still, At the flash of thine arrows and glittering spear, They shrunk from the sky they were chartered to fill With the flood of their light,—for the Ocean's was there!
HYMN OF THE FLOOD, continued.
What! is His smile for ever vanished,
And is His anger without end,
Ever from His presence banished
All that Earth could comprehend?
And in this floating cradle crowded,
Shut out from all that lived before,
As within the grave dark shrouded,
Must we visit her no more?
Never within the pure blue ether,
The fields of heaven, the golden sun,
Never seek a glimpse to gather
Of that purest, brightest One!
Never again on Ocean's margin
Note the broad waves sublimely swell, And the billowy West enlarging
With the setting day's farewell,
Whose hues are heaven's, of heaven a token,
As, mid the light of other sphere,
Spirits, though unheard, had spoken
Into life the glory there,
|