Which here she scarcely, lightly had begun : The foul engendered worm Feeds on the flesh of the life-giving Of our most Holy and Anointed One. He lies and moulders low; What if the women, ere the dawn was gray, Saw one or more great angels, as they say (Angels, or Him himself)? Yet neither there, nor then, Nor afterwards, nor elsewhere, nor at all, Hath He appeared to Peter or the Ten; Nor save in thunderous terror, to blind Saul; Save in an after Gospel and late Creed, Or, what if e'en, as runs a tale, the Ten Saw, heard, and touched, again and yet again? What if at Emmaüs' inn, and by Capernaum's Lake, Came One, the bread that brake Came One that spake as never mortal spake, And with them ate, and drank, and stood, and walked about? Ah?" some" did well to “doubt!" Ah! the true Christ, while these things came to pass, Nor heard, nor spake, nor walked, nor lived, alas! He was not risen, no He lay and mouldered low, Christ was not risen! As circulates in some great city crowd A rumor changeful, vague, importunate, and loud, From no determined centre or of fact Nor verify; So spread the wondrous fame; He all the same Lay senseless, mouldering, low: He was not risen, no Christ was not risen ! Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; Is He not risen, and shall we not rise? What did we dream, what wake we to discover? Ye hills, fall on us, and ye mountains, cover! In darkness and great gloom Come ere we thought it is our day of doom; From the cursed world, which is one tomb, [Him; Weep not beside the tomb, Ye women, unto whom He was great solace while ye tended Ye who with napkin o'er the head And folds of linen round each wounded limb Laid out the Sacred Dead; And thou that bar'st Him in thy wondering womb; Yea, Daughters of Jerusalem, depart, Bind up as best ye may your own sad bleeding heart: Go to your homes, your living children tend, Your earthly spouses love; Set your affections not on things above, Which moth and rust corrupt, which quickliest come to end : Or pray, if pray ye must, and pray, if Which ye would preach, because another heard Ye worshippers of that ye do not Take these things hence and go:- Here, on our Easter Day We rise, we come, and lo! we find Him not, Gardener nor other, on the sacred spot: Where they have laid Him there is none to say; No sound, nor in, nor out-no word Of where to seek the dead or meet the living Lord. There is no glistering of an angel's wings, There is no voice of heavenly clear behest: Let us go hence, and think upon these things In silence, which is best. Weep not, it bade, whatever hath been In the true creed Weep not beside His Tomb, Ye women unto whom He was great comfort and yet greater grief; Nor ye, ye faithful few that wont with Him to roam, Seek sadly what for Him ye left, go hopeless to your home; Nor ye despair, ye sharers yet to be of their belief; Though He be dead, He is not dead, Not lost, though vanished; In the true creed He is yet risen indeed; Christ is yet risen. Sit if ye will, sit down upon the ground, Yet not to weep and wail, but calmly look around. Whate'er befell, Earth is not hell; Now, too, as when it first began, For all that breathe beneath the heaven's high cope, Joy with grief mixes, with despondence hope. Hope conquers cowardice, joy grief; Though dead, not dead; In the great gospel and true creed, Christ is yet risen. 1849. 1869. HOPE EVERMORE AND BELIEVE! HOPE evermore and believe, O man, for e'en as thy thought So are the things that thou see'st; e'en as thy hope and belief. Cowardly art thou and timid? they rise to provoke thee against them; Hast thou courage? enough, see them exulting to yield. Yea, the rough rock, the dull earth, the wild sea's furying waters (Violent say'st thou and hard, mighty thou think'st to destroy), All with ineffable longing are waiting their Invader, All, with one varying voice, call to him, Come and subdue ; Still for their Conqueror call, and, but for the joy of being conquered (Rapture they will not forego), dare to resist and rebel; Still, when resisting and raging, in soft undervoice say unto him, Fear not, retire not, O man; hope evermore and believe. Go from the east to the west, as the sun and the stars direct thee, Go with the girdle of man, go and encompass the earth. Not for the gain of the gold; for the getting, the hoarding, the having, But for the joy of the deed; but for the Duty to do. Go with the spiritual life, the higher volition and action, With the great girdle of God, go and encompass the earth. Go; say not in thy heart, And what then were it accomplished, Were the wild impulse allayed, what were the use or the good! Go, when the instinct is stilled, and when the deed is accomplished, What thou hast done and shalt do, shall be declared to thee then. Go with the sun and the stars, and yet evermore in thy spirit Say to thyself: It is good: yet is there better than it. This that I see is not all, and this that I do is but little; Nevertheless it is good, though there is better than it. QUI LABORAT, ORAT 1862. Speechless remain, or speechless e'en depart; Nor seek to see-for what of earthly kind Can see Thee as Thou art?— If well-assured 'tis but profanely bold In thought's abstractest forms to seem to see, It dare not dare the dread communion hold In ways unworthy Thee, O not unowned, thou shalt unnamed forgive, In worldly walks the prayerless heart And if in work its life it seem to live, Nor times shall lack, when while the work it plies, Unsummoned powers the blinding film shall part, And scarce by happy tears made dim, the eyes In recognition start. But, as thou willest, give or e'en forbear Approach Thee morn and night. ὕμνος ἄυμνος O THOU whose image in the shrine Of human spirits dwells divine; Which from that precinct once veyed, 1862. con To be to outer day displayed, O Thou that in our bosom's shrine And thus I saw," and "that I heard."- O Thou, in that mysterious shrine I will not prate of "thus" and "so," Unseen, secure in that high shrine Do only Thou in that dim shrine, "THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY" WHAT we, when face to face we see A mind for thoughts to pass into, Rules baffle instincts-instincts rules, O may we for assurance' sake, Or is it right, and will it do, Ah yet, when all is thought and said, Must still believe, for still we hope AH! YET CONSIDER IT AGAIN! "OLD things need not be therefore true," The souls of now two thousand years We! what do we see? each a space Alas! the great world goes its way, A voice he dares to listen to, say, Come To thy true home. Come home, come home! and where a home hath he [sea? Whose ship is driving o'er the driving Through clouds that mutter, and o'er waves that roar, [shore Say, shall we find, or shall we not, a That is, as is not ship or ocean foam, Indeed our home? 1852. 1862. GREEN fields of England ! wheresoe'er Across this watery waste we fare, Your image at our hearts we bear, Green fields of England, everywhere. Sweet eyes in England, I must flee Dear home in England, safe and fast |