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| IN the pleasant land of Belgium, | |
| Where the Scheldt first seeks the main, | |
| Stands a quaint, old, gabled city, | |
| Fashioned like a town of Spain. | |
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| Through that grand old town of Antwerp, | 5 |
| Rich in shows of bygone time, | |
| As on eyesight falls the sunshine, | |
| Bursts the bright cathedral chime. | |
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| On the sultry air of summer, | |
| On December’s chilling blast, | 10 |
| On the dull blank ear of midnight, | |
| Is that carillon sweetly cast, | |
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| Like the golden grain in seed-time, | |
| Scattered with a hopeful care, | |
| That the genial after-season | 15 |
| May produce some harvest there. | |
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| Oft forgotten, oft remembered, | |
| Startling, strange, and silent soon, | |
| Lovely, even though neglected, | |
| Like the light of crescent moon. | 20 |
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| Where the reveller’s song is loudest, | |
| Where dim tapers light the dead, | |
| Where the stranger seeks his chamber, | |
| Steals that cadence overhead. | |
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| Where the monk is at his vigil, | 25 |
| Where the air is foul with sin, | |
| Where the lonely sick one waketh, | |
| That old chime strays softly in. | |
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| To the vile, in notes of warning,— | |
| Chiding tones that seldom cease,— | 30 |
| To the sad, in words of solace, | |
| To the pure, in thoughts of peace. | |
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| O’er the city, o’er the river, | |
| Through each quarter of the town, | |
| Through each day, and through each season, | 35 |
| Rains that frequent music down. | |
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| Even across the parting ocean, | |
| In still chambers of the brain, | |
| At this moment, through the silence, | |
| Breaks that magic sound again. | 40 |
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| Like the carillon softly chiming, | |
| Soothing, gentle as its fall, | |
| Is the ceaseless dole of mercy, | |
| Unperceived, that comes to all. | |
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| And our nobler life is nourished, | 45 |
| As we count the beads of time, | |
| By pure hopes, and aspirations | |
| Sweeter than that minster chime. | |
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| O, ’t is well to pause and listen | |
| To those benisons in the air, | 50 |
| As we tread life’s busy pathway, | |
| That salute us everywhere. | |
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