ANOTHER mile -- a year Pass'd by for ever! And the warnings swell From upper heaven to darkest depths of hell, -- O we are drawing near! All through the waiting lands Dim signs and tokens, if unheeded, throng; We feel them thickening as we pass along, Holding out fearful hands. Light! which in love sent down That tender gleam on Eden's darken'd bowers, When sin had breathed the blight upon the flowers Whereof death made his crown: -- Light! which did deign to stamp The tables on that Arab mountain-crest; -- Light! which, in shrouded glory, once did rest On Israelitish camp: -- O day! whose dawn was spread, Golden and clear, on Judaea's terraced hills, -- O shining noon! whose waxed beauty thrills Earth and her quick and dead: -- Come to our hearts, we pray! Through open doors let gracious gleams come in; Fill us with light and life, and let the sin And darkness pass away. Lord, waken us who sleep, Strengthen the feeble knees and weak hands now; Teach us, with prayer and work, to measure how Let not our lamp be dim When in the night we hear the footsteps fall Upon our threshold, -- let death find us all Watching in peace for him. Let us lie down to rest In surest hope of endless life in store, With happy reverent hands, that strive no more. Folded across our breast. And when the angels come, And the sharp echo of the herald's cry Pierces the dark and stillness where we lie Cold in our sleep, and dumb, -- May we arise, O King! In bridal garments, beautiful and white; And do Thou, coming in Thy godly might, Our crown of glory bring. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE TRUTH by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES HYMN: FIRST SUNDAY AFTER EPIPHANY: 2 by REGINALD HEBER THE OLD HOKUM BUNCOMBE by ROBERT EMMET SHERWOOD SINCERE FLATTERY OF R.B. by JAMES KENNETH STEPHEN CITY OF ORGIES by WALT WHITMAN TO THE LADY PENELOPE RITCH by RICHARD BARNFIELD THE SUMMONS by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |