| Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903. | | | | The Rainbow | | By Henry Vaughan (1622–1695) |
| | | STILL 1 young and fine! but what is still in view | |
| We slight as old and soil’d, though fresh and new. | |
| How bright wert thou, when Shem’s admiring eye | |
| Thy burnisht flaming arch did first descry! | |
| When Terah, Nahor, Haran, Abram, Lot, | 5 |
| The youthful world’s grey fathers in one knot, | |
| Did with intentive looks watch every hour | |
| For thy new light, and trembled at each shower! | |
| When thou dost shine, darkness looks white and fair, | |
| Storms turn to music, clouds to smiles and air, | 10 |
| Rain gently spends his honey-drops, and pours | |
| Balm on the cleft earth, milk on grass and flowers. | |
| Bright pledge of peace and sunshine! the sure tie | |
| Of thy Lord’s hand, the object of His eye! | |
| When I behold thee, though my light be dim, | 15 |
| Distant, and low, I can in thine see Him, | |
| Who looks upon thee from His glorious throne, | |
| And minds the covenant ’twixt all and One. | |
| | Note 1. Campbell borrowed from this poem in his “Rainbow” the lines—| | “How came the world’s gray fathers forth |
| To watch thy sacred sign. |
| | |
|
|
|
