XII. Poet's thought,-not poet's sigh. 'Las, they come together! Gone! except that moonlit cloud XIII. Let them! Wipe such visionings The sun may darken, heaven be bowed, A SABBATH MORNING AT SEA. I. THE ship went on with solemn face; The solemn ship went onward: II. Thick sleep which shut all dreams from me, And kept my inner self apart And quiet from emotion, Then brake away and left me free, III. The new sight, the new wondrous sight! Calm in a moonless, sunless light, Of holding the day-glory! IV. Two pale thin clouds did stand upon V. Then flushed to radiance where they stood, Of shining saints half risen. VI. I oft had seen the dawnlight run As red wine through the hills, and break But, here, no earth profaned the sun : VII. Away with thoughts fantastical! Though here no earthly shadows fall, VIII. God's sabbath morning sweeps the waves; I would not praise the pageant high Yet miss the dedicature: I, carried toward the sunless graves IX. And could I bear to sit alone While my warm pulse was moving f X. It seems a better lot than so, To sit with friends beneath the beech, And feel them dear and dearer; Or follow children as they go In pretty pairs, with softened speech, XI. Love me, sweet friends, this sabbath day! The sea sings round me while ye roll Afar the hymn unaltered, And kneel, where once I knelt to pray, And bless me deeper in the soul, XII. And though this sabbath comes to me Or chanting congregation, God's Spirit brings communion, HE Creator on creation. XIII. Himself, I think, shall draw me higher, Where keep the saints with harp and song An endless sabbath morning, And on that sea commixed with fire Oft drop their eyelids, raised too long To the full Godhead's burning. |