Classic Poem

As he ceased,
The air became all incense, and the skies,
As though endowed with native sunlife, showered
Around on all their iridescent smiles.

Oh not to us, rejoined the cherub host,
Be gratitude for duty barely done;
All honour is our Lord's. To Him we owe
This gracious exaltation o'er the world,
Wherein His love sustains us; His, who first
By one Omnipotent Fiat breathed us forth;
Who, out of awful non-existence, us
Translated into life, and turned our souls
To angel constellations, ranging free
Through all the eternal liberties of Light.
But if thou wilt, oh say, most holy guest!
Whom we account us blessed to receive,
While yet the day doth solemnize the skies,
Wherefore thou hither comest,—how treated else
In other worlds, and whither now; so we,
Haply, may wisdom gather from thy words,
Or help afford by deeds.


Then once again
That radiant youth, immortal as the morn,
Rose from the Crown of Heaven, and bending low
Spake with a soft, bright utterance, like the voice
Of very silence musing;—so serene
His parlance, and his audience so attent.

O happy angels, heavenly and divine,
To whom nor sin, nor sigh, nor tear, nor woe,
Not even in imagination, come;
And whose free lives in blest obedience pass
To one law pure, and sole—the law of love—
How shall ye hear, or I relate, the griefs
Of orbs disrupted and of spirits dyed
In blackest sin—of God's high rule reject—
His own deputed, exiled—rudely thrust
From ancient throne and old dynastic calm
Thought steadfast and eterne—and through the blank
Of lifeless night compelled to wander; where
But that afar he caught the friendly glance
Of your extreme and most felicitous star,
He might perchance have wandered still; but since
A gracious ear to stranger's plaint be yours,
Let me, in briefest wise, recount the deeds
Of worlds far distant, wherewithal mine own
Be somewhat, and not wholly dimly blent;
That ye in joy thus fortified, may thanks
Give for your peaceful lot, and further bless
God, who hath put it in your hearts to share
Those bounties with the stranger, ye enjoy.
To Him be praise and worship in all worlds!—
Beyond the ken of angels, in the midst
Of a bright ring of worlds, an orb there is—
There is—ah me! there was—an orb of light,
Once all mine own. In Heaven mine Angel-sire—
Such blest relations are, ye know, in Heaven—
Abode, and ruled in glory many a tribe
Elect of choicest virtues, He Himself
Sovereign and head of all cherubic thrones,
Abiel his name, mine Beniel, known on high,
His sole Son, and ye all are sons of God.
This orb, I, trusted with supremest powers
Paternal love could lend, myself had framed,
Myself with life endowed and loving things,
All life is sacred in its kind to Heaven,
And all things holy, beautiful and good.
There angels dwelt as in the bosom of bliss;
Peace, piety, and innocence and joy
Made up the square of Being. Worship was
The very air they lived in, righteousness
The ground they trode and builded on.


A land
It shewed of fountains, flowers and honied fruits,
Of cool green umbrage, and incessant sun;—
The rainbow there in permanent splendour spanned
The skies by ne'er a cloud deformed, of hue
Sterner than amber; while on every hand
The clear blue streams singing and sparkling ran
The bloomy meads to fertilize; while some
With honey, nectar, manna, milk and wine,
Fit for angelic sustenance slow flowed.
Here palaces and cities, midst of groves,
Like giant jewels set in emerald rings;
There, too, the bowery coverture of woods,
Ancient and dense, laced with all-tinted flowers,
Wherein were wont to sojourn in all peace,
Lamb, lion, eagle, ox, dove, serpent, goat
And snow-white hart, each sacred animal
Cleansed from all evil quality, sin-instilled,
Speaking one common tongue, and gathered oft
In wisest parley, 'neath the sacred tree
Centring each mazy pleasance, intersect
With an invisible bound; so sweet the force
Of nature, heavenly sanctioned.


All went well
For many a sunny cycle. Year by year
The souls of all things there were ripening fast
To spirit-like perfection; day by day
Grew spirithood to deathless angel kind—
Angelic nature to Divine estate.
It seemed a happy contest which of all
Should happiest be.