WHERE is the wonderful abode, The holy, secret, searchless shrine, Where dwells the immaterial God, The all-pervading and benign? O! that he were reveal'd to me, Fully and palpably display'd In all the awful majesty Of heaven's consummate pomp array'd -- How would the overwhelming light Of his tremendous presence beam! And how insufferably bright Would the broad glow of glory stream! What tho' this flesh would fade like grass, Before th' intensity of day? One glance at Him who always was, The fiercest pangs would well repay. When Moses on the mountain's brow Had met th' Eternal face to face, While anxious Israel stood below, Wond'ring and trembling at its base; His visage, as he downward trod, Shone starlike on the shrinking crowd, With lustre borrow'd from his God: They could not brook it, and they bow'd. The mere reflection of the blaze That lighten'd round creation's Lord, Was too puissant for their gaze; And he that caught it was ador'd. Then how ineffably august, How passing wond'rous must He be, Whose presence lent to earthly dust Such permanence of brilliancy! Thron'd in sequester'd sanctity, And with transcendant glories crown'd; With all his works beneath his eye, And suns and systems burning round, -- How shall I hymn him? How aspire His holy Name with song to blend, And bid my rash and feeble lyre To such an awless flight ascend? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY PRETTY ROSE TREE, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE HOLY CROSS DAY by ROBERT BROWNING ON MY JOYFUL DEPARTURE FROM THE CITY OF COLOGNE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE UPON HIS PICTURE by THOMAS RANDOLPH SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 20. 'SONG IS NOT DEAD' by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) |