Classic Poem

WHEN is Communion nearest?
When blended anthems dearest?
Is it where far away dim aisles prolong
The cadence of the choral song?
Whose notes like waves in ocean,
When all are heard, yet none,
With ever upward surging motion
Approach the Eternal Throne?
Notes that would of madness tell,
So keen they pierce, so high they swell;
But for heaven's harmonious spell;
Keen to the listening ear, as to the sight
The purest wintry star's intolerable light,
Yet mild as evening gleams just melting into night.

Or rather where soft soaring
One silent heart adoring
Loves o'er the stillness of the sick man's room
To breathe intensest prayer's perfume,
Whether calm rest be sealing
The pained and wearied eyes,
Or in high blended feeling
Watcher and sufferer rise.
Sweet the sleep, the waking dear
When the holy Church is near
With mother's arms to hush and cheer.
Seems it not then as though each prayer and psalm,
Came like one message more from that far world of calm,
An earnest of His love, whose Blood is healing balm?