• Home
  • Poems
  • Religious Musings[;] A Desultory Poem, Written in the Christmans Eve of 1794

Religious Musings[;] A Desultory Poem, Written in the Christmans Eve of 1794

  1. 1This is the time, when most divine to hear,
  2. 2The voice of Adoration rouses me,
  3. 3As with a Cherub's trump: and high upborne,
  4. 4Yea, mingling with the Choir, I seem to view
  5. 5The vision of the heavenly multitude,
  6. 6Who hymned the song of Peace o'er Bethlehem's fields!
  7. 7Yet thou more bright than all the Angel-blaze,
  8. 8That harbingered thy birth, Thou Man of Woes!
  9. 9Despiséd Galilaean! For the Great
  10. 10Invisible (by symbols only seen)
  11. 11With a peculiar and surpassing light
  12. 12Shines from the visage of the oppressed good man,
  13. 13When heedless of himself the scourgéd saint
  14. 14Mourns for the oppressor. Fair the vernal mead,
  15. 15Fair the high grove, the sea, the sun, the stars;
  16. 16True impress each of their creating Sire!
  17. 17Yet nor high grove, nor many-colour'd mead,
  18. 18Nor the green ocean with his thousand isles,
  19. 19Nor the starred azure, nor the sovran sun,
  20. 20E'er with such majesty of portraiture
  21. 21Imaged the supreme beauty uncreate,
  22. 22As thou, meek Saviour! at the fearful hour
  23. 23When thy insulted anguish winged the prayer
  24. 24Harped by Archangels, when they sing of mercy!
  25. 25Which when the Almighty heard from forth his throne
  26. 26Diviner light filled Heaven with ecstasy!
  27. 27Heaven's hymnings paused: and Hell her yawning mouth
  28. 28Closed a brief moment.
  1. 29Lovely was the death
  2. 30Of Him whose life was Love! Holy with power
  3. 31He on the thought-benighted Sceptic beamed
  4. 32Manifest Godhead, melting into day
  5. 33What floating mists of dark idolatry
  6. 34Broke and misshaped the omnipresent Sire:[110:1]
  7. 35And first by Fear uncharmed the drowséd Soul.
  8. 36Till of its nobler nature it 'gan feel
  9. 37Dim recollections; and thence soared to Hope,
  10. 38Strong to believe whate'er of mystic good
  11. 39The Eternal dooms for His immortal sons.
  12. 40From Hope and firmer Faith to perfect Love
  13. 41Attracted and absorbed: and centered there
  14. 42God only to behold, and know, and feel,
  15. 43Till by exclusive consciousness of God
  16. 44All self-annihilated it shall make[110:2]
  17. 45God its Identity: God all in all!
  18. 46We and our Father one!
  1. 47And blest are they,
  2. 48Who in this fleshly World, the elect of Heaven,
  3. 49Their strong eye darting through the deeds of men,
  4. 50Adore with steadfast unpresuming gaze
  5. 51Him Nature's essence, mind, and energy!
  6. 52And gazing, trembling, patiently ascend
  7. 53Treading beneath their feet all visible things
  8. 54As steps, that upward to their Father's throne
  9. 55Lead gradual--else nor glorified nor loved.
  10. 56They nor contempt embosom nor revenge:
  11. 57For they dare know of what may seem deform
  12. 58The Supreme Fair sole operant: in whose sight
  13. 59All things are pure, his strong controlling love
  14. 60Alike from all educing perfect good.
  15. 61Their's too celestial courage, inly armed--
  16. 62Dwarfing Earth's giant brood, what time they muse
  17. 63On their great Father, great beyond compare!
  18. 64And marching onwards view high o'er their heads
  19. 65His waving banners of Omnipotence.
  20. 66Who the Creator love, created Might
  21. 67Dread not: within their tents no Terrors walk.
  22. 68For they are holy things before the Lord
  23. 69Aye unprofaned, though Earth should league with Hell;
  24. 70God's altar grasping with an eager hand
  25. 71Fear, the wild-visag'd, pale, eye-starting wretch,
  26. 72Sure-refug'd hears his hot pursuing fiends
  27. 73Yell at vain distance. Soon refresh'd from Heaven
  28. 74He calms the throb and tempest of his heart.
  29. 75His countenance settles; a soft solemn bliss
  30. 76Swims in his eye--his swimming eye uprais'd:
  31. 77And Faith's whole armour glitters on his limbs!
  32. 78And thus transfigured with a dreadless awe,
  33. 79A solemn hush of soul, meek he beholds
  34. 80All things of terrible seeming: yea, unmoved
  35. 81Views e'en the immitigable ministers
  36. 82That shower down vengeance on these latter days.
  37. 83For kindling with intenser Deity
  38. 84From the celestial Mercy-seat they come,
  39. 85And at the renovating wells of Love
  40. 86Have fill'd their vials with salutary wrath,[112:1]
  41. 87To sickly Nature more medicinal
  42. 88Than what soft balm the weeping good man pours
  43. 89Into the lone despoiléd traveller's wounds!
  1. 90Thus from the Elect, regenerate through faith,
  2. 91Pass the dark Passions and what thirsty cares
  3. 92Drink up the spirit, and the dim regards
  4. 93Self-centre. Lo they vanish! or acquire
  5. 94New names, new features--by supernal grace
  6. 95Enrobed with Light, and naturalised in Heaven.
  7. 96As when a shepherd on a vernal morn
  8. 97Through some thick fog creeps timorous with slow foot,
  9. 98Darkling he fixes on the immediate road
  10. 99His downward eye: all else of fairest kind
  11. 100Hid or deformed. But lo! the bursting Sun!
  12. 101Touched by the enchantment of that sudden beam
  13. 102Straight the black vapour melteth, and in globes
  14. 103Of dewy glitter gems each plant and tree;
  15. 104On every leaf, on every blade it hangs!
  16. 105Dance glad the new-born intermingling rays,
  17. 106And wide around the landscape streams with glory!
  1. 107There is one Mind, one omnipresent Mind,
  2. 108Omnific. His most holy name is Love.
  3. 109Truth of subliming import! with the which
  4. 110Who feeds and saturates his constant soul,
  5. 111He from his small particular orbit flies
  6. 112With blest outstarting! From himself he flies,
  7. 113Stands in the sun, and with no partial gaze
  8. 114Views all creation; and he loves it all,
  9. 115And blesses it, and calls it very good!
  10. 116This is indeed to dwell with the Most High!
  11. 117Cherubs and rapture-trembling Seraphim
  12. 118Can press no nearer to the Almighty's throne.
  13. 119But that we roam unconscious, or with hearts
  14. 120Unfeeling of our universal Sire,
  15. 121And that in His vast family no Cain
  16. 122Injures uninjured (in her best-aimed blow
  17. 123Victorious Murder a blind Suicide)
  18. 124Haply for this some younger Angel now
  19. 125Looks down on Human Nature: and, behold!
  20. 126A sea of blood bestrewed with wrecks, where mad
  21. 127Embattling Interests on each other rush
  22. 128With unhelmed rage!
  1. 129'Tis the sublime of man,
  2. 130Our noontide Majesty, to know ourselves
  3. 131Parts and proportions of one wondrous whole!
  4. 132This fraternises man, this constitutes
  5. 133Our charities and bearings. But 'tis God
  6. 134Diffused through all, that doth make all one whole;
  7. 135This the worst superstition, him except
  8. 136Aught to desire, Supreme Reality![114:1]
  9. 137The plenitude and permanence of bliss!
  10. 138O Fiends of Superstition! not that oft
  11. 139The erring Priest hath stained with brother's blood
  12. 140Your grisly idols, not for this may wrath
  13. 141Thunder against you from the Holy One!
  14. 142But o'er some plain that steameth to the sun,
  15. 143Peopled with Death; or where more hideous Trade
  16. 144Loud-laughing packs his bales of human anguish;
  17. 145I will raise up a mourning, O ye Fiends!
  18. 146And curse your spells, that film the eye of Faith,
  19. 147Hiding the present God; whose presence lost,
  20. 148The moral world's cohesion, we become
  21. 149An Anarchy of Spirits! Toy-bewitched,
  22. 150Made blind by lusts, disherited of soul,
  23. 151No common centre Man, no common sire
  24. 152Knoweth! A sordid solitary thing,
  25. 153Mid countless brethren with a lonely heart
  26. 154Through courts and cities the smooth savage roams
  27. 155Feeling himself, his own low self the whole;
  28. 156When he by sacred sympathy might make
  29. 157The whole one Self! Self, that no alien knows!
  30. 158Self, far diffused as Fancy's wing can travel!
  31. 159Self, spreading still! Oblivious of its own,
  32. 160Yet all of all possessing! This is Faith!
  33. 161This the Messiah's destined victory!
  1. 162But first offences needs must come! Even now
  2. 163(Black Hell laughs horrible--to hear the scoff!)
  3. 164Thee to defend, meek Galilaean! Thee
  4. 165And thy mild laws of Love unutterable,
  5. 166Mistrust and Enmity have burst the bands
  6. 167Of social peace: and listening Treachery lurks
  7. 168With pious fraud to snare a brother's life;
  8. 169And childless widows o'er the groaning land
  9. 170Wail numberless; and orphans weep for bread!
  10. 171Thee to defend, dear Saviour of Mankind!
  11. 172Thee, Lamb of God! Thee, blameless Prince of Peace!
  12. 173From all sides rush the thirsty brood of War!--
  13. 174Austria, and that foul Woman of the North,
  14. 175The lustful murderess of her wedded lord!
  15. 176And he, connatural Mind! whom (in their songs
  16. 177So bards of elder time had haply feigned)
  17. 178Some Fury fondled in her hate to man,
  18. 179Bidding her serpent hair in mazy surge
  19. 180Lick his young face, and at his mouth imbreathe
  20. 181Horrible sympathy! And leagued with these
  21. 182Each petty German princeling, nursed in gore!
  22. 183Soul-hardened barterers of human blood!
  23. 184Death's prime slave-merchants! Scorpion-whips of Fate!
  24. 185Nor least in savagery of holy zeal,
  25. 186Apt for the yoke, the race degenerate,
  26. 187Whom Britain erst had blushed to call her sons!
  27. 188Thee to defend the Moloch Priest prefers
  28. 189The prayer of hate, and bellows to the herd,
  29. 190That Deity, Accomplice Deity
  30. 191In the fierce jealousy of wakened wrath
  31. 192Will go forth with our armies and our fleets
  32. 193To scatter the red ruin on their foes!
  33. 194O blasphemy! to mingle fiendish deeds
  34. 195With blessedness!
  1. 196Lord of unsleeping Love,
  2. 197From everlasting Thou! We shall not die.
  3. 198These, even these, in mercy didst thou form,
  4. 199Teachers of Good through Evil, by brief wrong
  5. 200Making Truth lovely, and her future might
  6. 201Magnetic o'er the fixed untrembling heart.
  1. 202In the primeval age a dateless while
  2. 203The vacant Shepherd wander'd with his flock,
  3. 204Pitching his tent where'er the green grass waved.
  4. 205But soon Imagination conjured up
  5. 206An host of new desires: with busy aim,
  6. 207Each for himself, Earth's eager children toiled.
  7. 208So Property began, twy-streaming fount,
  8. 209Whence Vice and Virtue flow, honey and gall.
  9. 210Hence the soft couch, and many-coloured robe,
  10. 211The timbrel, and arched dome and costly feast,
  11. 212With all the inventive arts, that nursed the soul
  12. 213To forms of beauty, and by sensual wants
  13. 214Unsensualised the mind, which in the means
  14. 215Learnt to forget the grossness of the end,
  15. 216Best pleasured with its own activity.
  16. 217And hence Disease that withers manhood's arm,
  17. 218The daggered Envy, spirit-quenching Want,
  18. 219Warriors, and Lords, and Priests--all the sore ills
  19. 220That vex and desolate our mortal life.
  20. 221Wide-wasting ills! yet each the immediate source
  21. 222Of mightier good. Their keen necessities
  22. 223To ceaseless action goading human thought
  23. 224Have made Earth's reasoning animal her Lord;
  24. 225And the pale-featured Sage's trembling hand
  25. 226Strong as an host of arméd Deities,
  26. 227Such as the blind Ionian fabled erst.
  1. 228From Avarice thus, from Luxury and War
  2. 229Sprang heavenly Science; and from Science Freedom.
  3. 230O'er waken'd realms Philosophers and Bards
  4. 231Spread in concentric circles: they whose souls,
  5. 232Conscious of their high dignities from God,
  6. 233Brook not Wealth's rivalry! and they, who long
  7. 234Enamoured with the charms of order, hate
  8. 235The unseemly disproportion: and whoe'er
  9. 236Turn with mild sorrow from the Victor's car
  10. 237And the low puppetry of thrones, to muse
  11. 238On that blest triumph, when the Patriot Sage[118:1]
  12. 239Called the red lightnings from the o'er-rushing cloud
  13. 240And dashed the beauteous terrors on the earth
  14. 241Smiling majestic. Such a phalanx ne'er
  15. 242Measured firm paces to the calming sound
  16. 243Of Spartan flute! These on the fated day,
  17. 244When, stung to rage by Pity, eloquent men
  18. 245Have roused with pealing voice the unnumbered tribes
  19. 246That toil and groan and bleed, hungry and blind--
  20. 247These, hush'd awhile with patient eye serene,
  21. 248Shall watch the mad careering of the storm;
  22. 249Then o'er the wild and wavy chaos rush
  23. 250And tame the outrageous mass, with plastic might
  24. 251Moulding Confusion to such perfect forms,
  25. 252As erst were wont,--bright visions of the day!--
  26. 253To float before them, when, the summer noon,
  27. 254Beneath some arched romantic rock reclined
  28. 255They felt the sea-breeze lift their youthful locks;
  29. 256Or in the month of blossoms, at mild eve,
  30. 257Wandering with desultory feet inhaled
  31. 258The wafted perfumes, and the flocks and woods
  32. 259And many-tinted streams and setting sun
  33. 260With all his gorgeous company of clouds
  34. 261Ecstatic gazed! then homeward as they strayed
  35. 262Cast the sad eye to earth, and inly mused
  36. 263Why there was misery in a world so fair.
  1. 264Ah! far removed from all that glads the sense,
  2. 265From all that softens or ennobles Man,
  3. 266The wretched Many! Bent beneath their loads
  4. 267They gape at pageant Power, nor recognise
  5. 268Their cots' transmuted plunder! From the tree
  6. 269Of Knowledge, ere the vernal sap had risen
  7. 270Rudely disbranchéd! Blessed Society!
  8. 271Fitliest depictured by some sun-scorched waste,
  9. 272Where oft majestic through the tainted noon
  10. 273The Simoom sails, before whose purple pomp[119:1]
  11. 274Who falls not prostrate dies! And where by night,
  12. 275Fast by each precious fountain on green herbs
  13. 276The lion couches: or hyaena dips
  14. 277Deep in the lucid stream his bloody jaws;
  15. 278Or serpent plants his vast moon-glittering bulk,
  16. 279Caught in whose monstrous twine Behemoth[119:2] yells,
  17. 280His bones loud-crashing!
  1. 281O ye numberless,
  2. 282Whom foul Oppression's ruffian gluttony
  3. 283Drives from Life's plenteous feast! O thou poor Wretch
  4. 284Who nursed in darkness and made wild by want,
  5. 285Roamest for prey, yea thy unnatural hand
  6. 286Dost lift to deeds of blood! O pale-eyed form,
  7. 287The victim of seduction, doomed to know
  8. 288Polluted nights and days of blasphemy;
  9. 289Who in loathed orgies with lewd wassailers
  10. 290Must gaily laugh, while thy remembered Home
  11. 291Gnaws like a viper at thy secret heart!
  12. 292O agéd Women! ye who weekly catch
  13. 293The morsel tossed by law-forced charity,
  14. 294And die so slowly, that none call it murder!
  15. 295O loathly suppliants! ye, that unreceived
  16. 296Totter heart-broken from the closing gates
  17. 297Of the full Lazar-house; or, gazing, stand,
  18. 298Sick with despair! O ye to Glory's field
  19. 299Forced or ensnared, who, as ye gasp in death,
  20. 300Bleed with new wounds beneath the vulture's beak!
  21. 301O thou poor widow, who in dreams dost view
  22. 302Thy husband's mangled corse, and from short doze
  23. 303Start'st with a shriek; or in thy half-thatched cot
  24. 304Waked by the wintry night-storm, wet and cold
  25. 305Cow'rst o'er thy screaming baby! Rest awhile
  26. 306Children of Wretchedness! More groans must rise,
  27. 307More blood must stream, or ere your wrongs be full.
  28. 308Yet is the day of Retribution nigh:
  29. 309The Lamb of God hath opened the fifth seal:[120:1]
  30. 310And upward rush on swiftest wing of fire
  31. 311The innumerable multitude of wrongs
  32. 312By man on man inflicted! Rest awhile,
  33. 313Children of Wretchedness! The hour is nigh
  34. 314And lo! the Great, the Rich, the Mighty Men,
  35. 315The Kings and the Chief Captains of the World,
  36. 316With all that fixed on high like stars of Heaven
  37. 317Shot baleful influence, shall be cast to earth,
  38. 318Vile and down-trodden, as the untimely fruit
  39. 319Shook from the fig-tree by a sudden storm.
  40. 320Even now the storm begins: each gentle name,
  41. 321Faith and meek Piety, with fearful joy
  42. 322Tremble far-off--for lo! the Giant Frenzy
  43. 323Uprooting empires with his whirlwind arm
  44. 324Mocketh high Heaven; burst hideous from the cell
  45. 325Where the old Hag, unconquerable, huge,
  46. 326Creation's eyeless drudge, black Ruin, sits
  47. 327Nursing the impatient earthquake.
  1. 328O return!
  2. 329Pure Faith! meek Piety! The abhorréd Form
  3. 330Whose scarlet robe was stiff with earthly pomp,
  4. 331Who drank iniquity in cups of gold,
  5. 332Whose names were many and all blasphemous,
  6. 333Hath met the horrible judgment! Whence that cry?
  7. 334The mighty army of foul Spirits shrieked
  8. 335Disherited of earth! For she hath fallen
  9. 336On whose black front was written Mystery;
  10. 337She that reeled heavily, whose wine was blood;
  11. 338She that worked whoredom with the Daemon Power,
  12. 339And from the dark embrace all evil things
  13. 340Brought forth and nurtured: mitred Atheism!
  14. 341And patient Folly who on bended knee
  15. 342Gives back the steel that stabbed him; and pale Fear
  16. 343Haunted by ghastlier shapings than surround
  17. 344Moon-blasted Madness when he yells at midnight!
  18. 345Return pure Faith! return meek Piety!
  19. 346The kingdoms of the world are your's: each heart
  20. 347Self-governed, the vast family of Love
  21. 348Raised from the common earth by common toil
  22. 349Enjoy the equal produce. Such delights
  23. 350As float to earth, permitted visitants!
  24. 351When in some hour of solemn jubilee
  25. 352The massy gates of Paradise are thrown
  26. 353Wide open, and forth come in fragments wild
  27. 354Sweet echoes of unearthly melodies,
  28. 355And odours snatched from beds of Amaranth,
  29. 356And they, that from the crystal river of life
  30. 357Spring up on freshened wing, ambrosial gales!
  31. 358The favoured good man in his lonely walk
  32. 359Perceives them, and his silent spirit drinks
  33. 360Strange bliss which he shall recognise in heaven.
  34. 361And such delights, such strange beatitudes
  35. 362Seize on my young anticipating heart
  36. 363When that blest future rushes on my view!
  37. 364For in his own and in his Father's might
  38. 365The Saviour comes! While as the Thousand Years
  39. 366Lead up their mystic dance, the Desert shouts!
  40. 367Old Ocean claps his hands! The mighty Dead
  41. 368Rise to new life, whoe'er from earliest time
  42. 369With conscious zeal had urged Love's wondrous plan,
  43. 370Coadjutors of God. To Milton's trump
  44. 371The high groves of the renovated Earth
  45. 372Unbosom their glad echoes: inly hushed,
  46. 373Adoring Newton his serener eye
  47. 374Raises to heaven: and he of mortal kind
  48. 375Wisest, he first who marked the ideal tribes
  49. 376Up the fine fibres through the sentient brain.
  50. 377Lo! Priestley there, patriot, and saint, and sage,
  51. 378Him, full of years, from his loved native land
  52. 379Statesmen blood-stained and priests idolatrous
  53. 380By dark lies maddening the blind multitude
  54. 381Drove with vain hate. Calm, pitying he retired,
  55. 382And mused expectant on these promised years.
  1. 383O Years! the blest pre-eminence of Saints!
  2. 384Ye sweep athwart my gaze, so heavenly bright,
  3. 385The wings that veil the adoring Seraphs' eyes,
  4. 386What time they bend before the Jasper Throne[123:2]
  5. 387Reflect no lovelier hues! Yet ye depart,
  6. 388And all beyond is darkness! Heights most strange,
  7. 389Whence Fancy falls, fluttering her idle wing.
  8. 390For who of woman born may paint the hour,
  9. 391When seized in his mid course, the Sun shall wane
  10. 392Making noon ghastly! Who of woman born
  11. 393May image in the workings of his thought,
  12. 394How the black-visaged, red-eyed Fiend outstretched[124:1]
  13. 395Beneath the unsteady feet of Nature groans,
  14. 396In feverous slumbers--destined then to wake,
  15. 397When fiery whirlwinds thunder his dread name
  16. 398And Angels shout, Destruction! How his arm
  17. 399The last great Spirit lifting high in air
  18. 400Shall swear by Him, the ever-living One,
  19. 401Time is no more!
  1. 402Believe thou, O my soul,
  2. 403Life is a vision shadowy of Truth;
  3. 404And vice, and anguish, and the wormy grave,
  4. 405Shapes of a dream! The veiling clouds retire,
  5. 406And lo! the Throne of the redeeming God
  6. 407Forth flashing unimaginable day
  7. 408Wraps in one blaze earth, heaven, and deepest hell.
  1. 409Contemplant Spirits! ye that hover o'er
  2. 410With untired gaze the immeasurable fount
  3. 411Ebullient with creative Deity!
  4. 412And ye of plastic power, that interfused
  5. 413Roll through the grosser and material mass
  6. 414In organizing surge! Holies of God!
  7. 415(And what if Monads of the infinite mind?)
  8. 416I haply journeying my immortal course
  9. 417Shall sometime join your mystic choir! Till then
  10. 418I discipline my young and novice thought
  11. 419In ministeries of heart-stirring song,
  12. 420And aye on Meditation's heaven-ward wing
  13. 421Soaring aloft I breathe the empyreal air
  14. 422Of Love, omnific, omnipresent Love,
  15. 423Whose day-spring rises glorious in my soul
  16. 424As the great Sun, when he his influence
  17. 425Sheds on the frost-bound waters--The glad stream
  18. 426Flows to the ray and warbles as it flows.