1.
Hush ! hush! through the azure expanse of the sky,
Comes a low, gentle sound, 'twixt a laugh and a sigh;
And I rise from my writing, and look up on high,
And I kneel — for the first of God's angels is nigh!
2.
Oh! how to describe what my rapt eyes descry! —
For the blue of the sky is the blue of his eye;
And the white clouds, whose whiteness the snow-flakes outvie,
Are the luminous pinions on which he doth fly!
3.
And his garments of gold gleam at times like the pyre
Of the west, when the sun in a blaze doth expire; —
Now tinged like the orange — now flaming with fire! —
Half the crimson of roses and purple of Tyre.
4.
And his voice, on whose accents the angels have hung —
He himself a bright angel, immortal and young —
Scatters melody sweeter the green buds among,
Than the poet e'er wrote, or the nightingale sung.
5.
It comes on the balm-bearing breath of the breeze,
And the odours, that later will gladden the bees,
With a life and a freshness united to these,
From the rippling of waters, and rustling of trees.
6.
Like a swan to its young o'er the glass of a pond,
So to earth comes the angel, as graceful and fond;
While a bright beam of sunshine — his magical wand —
Strikes the fields at my feet, and the mountains beyond.
7.
They waken — they start into life at a bound —
Flowers climb the tall hillocks, and cover the ground;
With a nimbus of glory the mountains are crown'd,
As their rivulets rush to the ocean profound.
8.
There is life on the earth — there is calm on the sea,
And the rough waves are smoothed, and the frozen are free;
And they gambol and ramble like boys, in their glee,
Round the shell-shining strand on the grass-bearing lea.
9.
There is love for the young — there is life for the old,
And wealth for the needy, and heat for the cold;
For the dew scatters, nightly, its diamonds untold,
And the snowdrop its silver — the crocus its gold!
10.
God! — whose goodness and greatness we bless and adore —
Be Thou praised for this angel — the first of the four —
To whose charge Thou hast given the world's uttermost shore,
To guide it, and guard it, till time is no more!
Hush ! hush! through the azure expanse of the sky,
Comes a low, gentle sound, 'twixt a laugh and a sigh;
And I rise from my writing, and look up on high,
And I kneel — for the first of God's angels is nigh!
2.
Oh! how to describe what my rapt eyes descry! —
For the blue of the sky is the blue of his eye;
And the white clouds, whose whiteness the snow-flakes outvie,
Are the luminous pinions on which he doth fly!
3.
And his garments of gold gleam at times like the pyre
Of the west, when the sun in a blaze doth expire; —
Now tinged like the orange — now flaming with fire! —
Half the crimson of roses and purple of Tyre.
4.
And his voice, on whose accents the angels have hung —
He himself a bright angel, immortal and young —
Scatters melody sweeter the green buds among,
Than the poet e'er wrote, or the nightingale sung.
5.
It comes on the balm-bearing breath of the breeze,
And the odours, that later will gladden the bees,
With a life and a freshness united to these,
From the rippling of waters, and rustling of trees.
6.
Like a swan to its young o'er the glass of a pond,
So to earth comes the angel, as graceful and fond;
While a bright beam of sunshine — his magical wand —
Strikes the fields at my feet, and the mountains beyond.
7.
They waken — they start into life at a bound —
Flowers climb the tall hillocks, and cover the ground;
With a nimbus of glory the mountains are crown'd,
As their rivulets rush to the ocean profound.
8.
There is life on the earth — there is calm on the sea,
And the rough waves are smoothed, and the frozen are free;
And they gambol and ramble like boys, in their glee,
Round the shell-shining strand on the grass-bearing lea.
9.
There is love for the young — there is life for the old,
And wealth for the needy, and heat for the cold;
For the dew scatters, nightly, its diamonds untold,
And the snowdrop its silver — the crocus its gold!
10.
God! — whose goodness and greatness we bless and adore —
Be Thou praised for this angel — the first of the four —
To whose charge Thou hast given the world's uttermost shore,
To guide it, and guard it, till time is no more!
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