Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HYMNS OF A HERMIT: 2, by JOHN STERLING (1806-1844)


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HYMNS OF A HERMIT: 2, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O thou who strength and wisdom sheddest
Last Line: The timeless one proclaim'd of old!
Subject(s): Hermits


O THOU who strength and wisdom sheddest
O'er all thy countless works below,
And harmony and beauty spreadest
On lands unmoved, and seas that flow!
From grains and motes to spheres uncounted,
From deep beneath to suns above,
My gaze with awe and joy has mounted,
And found in all thy ordering love.

The fly around me smoothly flitting,
The lark that hymns the morning star,
The swan on crystal water sitting,
The eagle hung in skies afar --
To all their cleaving wings thou givest,
Like those that bear the seraph's flight;
In all, O perfect Will! thou livest,
For all hast oped thy world of light.

The grass that springs beside the fountain,
The silver waves that sparkle there,
The trees that robe the shadowing mountain,
And, high o'er all, the limpid air --
Amid the vale each lowly dwelling,
Whose hearths with sweet religion shine,
In measure all things round are swelling
With tranquil being's force divine.

And deep and vast beyond our wonder,
The links of power that bind the whole,
While day, and dusk, and breeze, and thunder,
And life and death unceasing roll.
While all is wheel'd in endless motion,
Thou changest not, upholding all;
And, lifting man in pure devotion,
On Thee thou teachest him to call.

To him, thy child, thyself revealing,
He sees what all is meant to be;
From him thy secret not concealing,
Thou bidd'st his will aspire to Thee.
And so we own in thy creation
An image painting all thou art;
And, crowning all the revelation,
Thy loftiest work, a human heart.

The will, the love, the sunlike reason,
Which thou hast made the strength of man,
May ebb and flow through day and season,
And oft may mar their seeming plan;
But Thou art here to nerve and fashion
With better hopes our world of care,
To calm each base and lawless passion,
And so the heavenly life repair.

In all the track of earth-born ages,
Each day displays thy guidance clear,
And, best divined by holiest sages,
Makes every child in part a seer.
Thy laws are bright with purest glory,
To us thou givest congenial eyes,
And so, in earth's unfolding story,
We read thy truth that fills the skies.

But mid thy countless forms of being
One shines supreme o'er all beside,
And man, in all thy wisdom seeing,
In Him reveres a sinless guide.
In Him alone, no longer shrouded
By mist that dims all meaner things,
Thou dwell'st, O God! unveil'd, unclouded,
And fearless peace thy presence brings.

Then teach my heart, celestial Brightness!
To know that Thou art hid no more,
To sun my spirit's dear-bought whiteness
Beneath thy rays, and upward soar.
In all that is, a law unchanging
Of Truth and Love may I behold,
And own, mid thought's unbounded ranging,
The timeless One proclaim'd of old!





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