Oh Happiness! not to be found,
Unattainable treasure, adieu!
I have sought thee in splendour and dress,
In the regions of pleasure and taste;
I have sought thee and seem'd to possess,
But have proved thee a vision at last.
An humble ambition and hope
The voice of true Wisdom inspires;
"Tis sufficient if Peace be the scope
And the summit of all our desires.
Peace may be the lot of the mind
That seeks it in meekness and love:
But rapture and bliss are confined
To the glorified spirit above.
WHEN from thy beaming throne,
O High and Holy One!
Thou cam'st to dwell with those of mortal birth;
No ray of living light
Flashed on th' astonished sight
To shew the GODHEAD walk his subject earth.
Thine was no awful form,
Shrouded in mist and storm,
Of seraph walking on the viewless wind;
Nor didst thou deign to wear
The port, sublimely fair,
Of angel heralds, sent to bless mankind.
Made like the sons of clay,
Thy matchless glories lay
In form of feeble infancy concealed;
No pomp of outward sign
Proclaimed the Power Divine,
No earthly state the heavenly guest revealed!
Thou didst not choose thy home
Beneath a lordly dome:
No regal diadem wreathed thy baby brow;
Nor on a soft couch laid,
Nor in rich vest arrayed,
But with the poorest of the poor wert Thou!
Yet she, whose gentle breast
Was thy glad place of rest;-
In her the blood of royal David flowed:
Men passed her dwelling by
With proud and scornful eye,
But angels knew and loved her mean abode.
There softer strains she heard
Than song of evening bird,
Or tuneful minstrel in a queenly bower;
And o'er her dwelling lone
A brighter radiance shone
Than ever glittered from a monarch's tower.
For there the mystic star
That sages led from far,
To pour their treasures at her Infant's feet,
Still shed its golden light;-
There, through the calm, clear night, Were heard angelic voices strangely sweet.
O happiest thou of all
Who bear the deadly thrall,
VITAL spark of heavenly flame;
Quit, oh quit, this mortal frame:
Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying;
Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying!
Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,
And let me languish into life.
Hark, they whisper; angels say,
Sister spirit, come away!
What is this absorbs me quite ?
Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
The world recedes; it disappears!
Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
HAST thou a charm to stay the Morning-star
In his steep course? So long he seems to pause
On thy bald, awful head, O sovran Blanc !
The Arve and Arveiron at thy base
Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form!
Risest from forth the silent Sea of Pines,
How silently! Around thee and above
Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black,
An ebon mass: methinks thou piercest it,
As with a wedge! But when I look again,
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine,
Thy habitation from eternity!
O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee,
Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,
Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in
I worshipp'd the Invisible alone.
Yet, like some sweet beguiling melody,
So sweet, we know not we are listening to it,
Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my
thought,
Yea, with my life and life's own secret joy:
Till the dilating soul, enrapt, transfused
Into the mighty vision passing-then,
As in her natural form, swell'd vast to heaven!
Awake, my soul! not only passive praise
Thou owest! not alone these swelling tears,
Mute thanks and secret ecstasy! Awake
Voice of sweet song! Awake, my heart, awake!
Green vales and icy cliffs, all join my hymn!
Thou first and chief, sole sovereign of the vale!
O struggling with the darkness all the night,
And visited all night by troops of stars,
Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink:
Companion of the Morning-star at dawn,
Thyself earth's rosy star, and of the dawn
Co-herald: wake, O wake, and utter praise!
Who sank thy sunless pillars deep in earth?
And you, ye five wild torrents fiercely glad!
Who call'd you forth from night and utter death,
From dark and icy caverns call'd you forth,
Down those precipitous, black, jagged rocks,
For ever shatter'd, and the same for ever?
Who gave you your invulnerable life,
Your strength, your speed, your fury, and your joy,
Unceasing thunder and eternal foam?
And who commanded, (and the silence came,)
Here let the billows stiffen, and have rest?
Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow
Adown enormous ravines slope amain-
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty Voice,
And stopp'd at once amid their maddest plunge!
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