AY, there ye shine, and there have shone | |
In one eternal hour of prime; | |
Each rolling, burningly alone, | |
Through boundless space and countless time! | |
Ay, there ye shinethe golden dews | 5 |
That pave the realms by seraphs trod, | |
There through yon echoing vault diffuse | |
The song of choral worlds to God. | |
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Ye visible spirits! bright as erst | |
Young Edens birthnight saw ye shine | 10 |
On all her flowers and fountains first, | |
Yet sparkling from the hand divine; | |
Yes, bright as then ye smiled to catch | |
The music of a sphere so fair, | |
Ye hold your high immortal watch; | 15 |
And gird your Gods pavilion there! | |
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Gold frets to dust,yet there ye are; | |
Time rots the diamond,there ye roll, | |
In primal light, as if each star | |
Enshrined an everlasting soul! | 20 |
And do they notsince yon bright throngs | |
One all-enlightening Spirit own, | |
Praised there by pure sidereal tongues, | |
Eternal, glorious, blessed, and lone? | |
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Could man but see what ye have seen, | 25 |
Unfold awhile the shrouded past, | |
From all that is, to what has been, | |
The glance how rich, the range how vast! | |
The birth of timethe rise, the fall | |
Of empires, myriads, ages flown, | 30 |
Thrones, cities, tongues, arts, worshipsall | |
The things whose echoes are not gone. | |
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Ye saw rapt Zoroaster send | |
His soul into your mystic reign; | |
Ye saw the adoring Sabian bend | 35 |
The living hills his mighty fane! | |
Beneath his blue and beaming sky | |
He worshipped at your lofty shrine, | |
And deemed he saw, with gifted eye, | |
The Godhead in his works divine. | 40 |
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And there ye shine, as if to mock | |
The children of a mortal sire! | |
The storm, the bolt, the earthquakes shock, | |
The red volcanos cataract fire, | |
Drought, famine, plague, and flood, and flame, | 45 |
All Natures ills (and Lifes worst woes), | |
Are naught to youye smile the same, | |
And scorn alike their dawn and close. | |
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Ay, there ye rollemblems sublime | |
Of Him, whose spirit oer us moves, | 50 |
Beyond the clouds of grief and crime, | |
Still shining on the world he loves; | |
Nor is one scene to mortals given, | |
That more divides the soul and sod, | |
Than yon proud heraldry of heaven | 55 |
Yon burning blazonry of God! | |
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