Hesperus Part 2

To be first in the light Of His Holy sight, And freed from His chastening rod.

Faithful, indeed, that soul, to be The messenger of Deity!

FIRST ANGEL.

This, this is the chosen spirit, Whose love is ever increased From its own pare soul, The illumined goal Where Love holds perpetual feast.

VI.

With noiseless speed the angel charioteers In dazzling splendour all triumphant rode; Through seas of ether painfully serene, That flashed a golden, phosph.o.r.escent spray, As luminous as the sun's intensest beams, Athwart the wide, interminable s.p.a.ce.

Legion on legion of the sons of G.o.d; Vast phalanxes of graceful cherubim;

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Innumerable mult.i.tudes and ranks Of all the hosts and hierarchs of heaven, Moved by one universal impulse, urged Their steeds of swiftness up the arch of light, From sphere to sphere increasing as they came, Till world on world was emptied of its race.

Upward, with unimaginable speed, The myriads, congregating zenith-ward, Reached the far confines of the utmost sphere, The home of Truth, the dwelling-place of Love, Striking celestial symphonies divine From the resounding sea of melody, That heaved in swells of soft, mellifluous sound, To the blest crowds at whose triumphal tread Its soul of sweetness waked in thrills sublime, The sun stood poised upon the western verge; The moon paused, waiting for the march of earth, That stayed to watch the advent of the stars; And ocean hushed its very deepest deeps In grateful expectation.

SECOND ANGEL.

Still through the viewless regions Of the habitable air, Through the ether ocean, In unceasing motion, Pa.s.s the mult.i.tudinous legions Of angels everywhere.

Bearing each new-born spirit Through the interlucent void

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To its starry dwelling, Angel anthems telling Every earthly deed of merit To each flashing asteroid.

THIRD ANGEL.

Through the realms sidereal, Clothed with the immaterial, Far as the fields elysian In starry bloom extend, The stretch of angel vision Can see and comprehend.

VII.

Innumerable as the ocean sands The angel concourse in due order stood, In meek antic.i.p.ation waiting for The new-created orbs, Still hidden in the deep And unseen laboratory, where Not even angel eyes could penetrate: A star for each of that angelic host, Memorials of their faithfulness and love.

The Evening Star, G.o.d's bright eternal gift To the pure Seraph with the brow of light, And named for her, mild Hesperus, Came twinkling down the unenc.u.mbered blue, On viewless wings of sweet melodious sound, Beauty and grace presiding at its birth.

Celestial plaudits sweeping through the skies Waked resonant paeans, till the concave thrilled

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Through its illimitable bounds.

With a sudden burst Of light, that lit the universal s.p.a.ce As with a flame of crystal, Rousing the Soul of Joy That slumbered in the patient sea, From every point of heaven the hurrying cars Conveyed the constellations to their thrones-- The throbbing planets, and the burning suns, Erratic comets, and the various grades And magnitudes of palpitating stars.

From the far arctic and antarctic zones, Through all the vast, surrounding infinite, A wilderness of intermingling orbs, The gleaming wonders, pulsing earthward, came; Each to its destined place, Each in itself a world, With all its coining myriad life, Drawing us nearer the Omnipotent, With hearts of wonder, and with souls of praise: Astrea, Pallas, strange Aldebaran, The Pleiads, Arcturus, the ruddy Mars, Pale Saturn, Ceres and Orion-- All as they circle still Through the enraptured void.

For each young angel born to us from earth, A new-made star is launched among its peers.

FULL ANGEL CHORUS.

Dreamer in the realms aerial, Searcher for the true and good,

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Hoper for the high, ethereal Limit of Beat.i.tude, Lift thy heart to heaven, for there Is embalmed thy spirit prayer: Not in words is shrined thy prayer, But thy Thought awaits thee there.

G.o.d loves the silent worshipper.

The grandest hymn That nature chants--the litany Of the rejoicing stars--is silent praise.

Their nightly anthems stir The souls of lofty seraphim In the remotest heaven. The melody Descends in throbbings of celestial light Into the heart of man, whose upward gaze, And meditative aspect, tell Of the heart's incense pa.s.sing up the night.

Above the crystalline height The theme of thoughtful praise ascends.

Not from the wildest swell Of the vexed ocean soars the fullest psalm; But in the evening calm, And in the solemn midnight, silence blends With silence, and to the ear Attuned to harmony divine Begets a strain Whose trance-like stillness wakes delicious pain.

The silent tear Holds keener anguish in its...o...b..of brine, Deeper and truer grief Than the loud wail that brings relief,

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As thunder clears the atmosphere.

But the deep, tearless Sorrow,--how profound!

Unspoken to the ear Of sense, 'tis yet as eloquent a sound As that which wakes the lyre Of the rejoicing Day, when Morn on the mountains lights his urn of fire.

The flowers of the glen Rejoice in silence; huge pines stand apart Upon the lofty hills, and sigh Their woes to every breeze that pa.s.seth by; The willow tells its mournful tale So tenderly, that e'en the pa.s.sing gale Bears not a murmur on its wings Of what the spirit sings That breathes its trembling thoughts through all the drooping strings.

He loves G.o.d most who worships most In the obedient heart.

The thunder's noisome boast, What is it to the violet lightning thought?

So with the burning pa.s.sion of the stars-- Creation's diamond sands, Strewn along the pearly strands, And far-extending corridors Of heaven's blooming sh.o.r.es; No scintil of their jewelled flame But wafts the exquisite essence Of prayer to the Eternal Presence, Of praise to the Eternal Name.

The silent prayer unbars

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The gates of Paradise, while the too-intimate, Self-righteous' boast, strikes rudely at the gate Of heaven, unknowing why it does not open to Their summons, as they see pale Silence pa.s.sing through.

VIII.

In grateful admiration, till the Dawn Withdrew the gleaming curtains of the night, We watched the whirling systems, until each Could recognize their own peculiar star; When, with the swift celerity Of Fancy-footed Thought, The light-caparisoned, aerial steeds, Shod with rare fleetness, Revisited the farthest of the spheres Ere the earth's sun had kissed the mountain tops, Or shook the sea-pearls from his locks of gold.

Still on the Evening Star Gazed we with steadfast eyes, As it shone On its throne Afar, In the blue skies.

No longer the charioteers Dashed through the gleaming spheres; No more the evangels Rehea.r.s.ed the glad story; But, in pa.s.sing, the angels Left footprints of glory:

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For up the starry void Bright-flashing asteroid, Pale moon and starry choir, Aided by Fancy's fire, Rung from the glittering lyre Changes of song and hymn, Worthy of Seraphim.

Night's shepherdess sat, queenlike, on her throne, Watching her starry flocks from zone to zone, While we, like mortals turned to breathing stone, Intently pondered on the Known Unknown.

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CROWNED.