The mass was sung, and prayers were said, And solemn requiem for the dead; The bells tolled out their mighty peal, For the departed spirit's weal; And ever in the office close The hymn of intercession rose; And far the echoing aisles prolong The awful burthen of the song, -- @3Dies irae, dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla,@1 While the pealing organ rung; Meet it were with solemn strain To close my lay, so light and vain, Thus the holy Fathers sung: -- HYMN FOR THE DEAD That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, What power shall be the sinner's stay? How shall he meet that dreadful day? When, shriveling like a parched scroll, The flaming heavens together roll; When louder yet, and yet more dread, Swells the high trump that wakes the dead! O! on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be @3Thou@1 the trembling sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TWILIGHT by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE GREENWOOD SHRIFT; GEORGE III AND A DYING WOMAN IN WINDSOR FOREST by ROBERT SOUTHEY BEAT! BEAT! DRUMS! by WALT WHITMAN COMFORT IN AFFLICTION by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN LEAVES A-VALLEN by WILLIAM BARNES SHEEPBELLS by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE WEDDING FEAST: 4 by ANNA HEMPSTEAD BRANCH MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE LORD HAYES: TO JAMES KING OF BRITAIN by THOMAS CAMPION |