Classic Poem

And is there then no psalm in tune
With all the majesty of noon,
When earth receives its richest dower
Of living and life-giving power?
Let not the thought a moment wrong
That everlasting tide of song,
Which day and night from field and flood
Arises to the ear of God;
But morning has its skies and dews
Of pearl and opal all its own,
And evening's tender roseate hues
Are in meridian light unknown.

Sweet are the laughter and the love,
Echoes on earth of joys above,
Which lighten on the passer-by
In childhood's free and fearless eye.
Warm is the throbbing heart of youth,
And strong the wrestling grasp on truth
Which stamps the years of manhood's prime
And makes the lowliest things sublime:
But haply not less dear to heaven
The calm victorious faith of age,
When weary travellers at even
Lay dówn the staff of pilgrimage.

And it was now at set of sun,
His long day's labour almost done,
With wan worn cheek but kindling eye
The old man laid him down to die.
Some threescore years and ten had pass'd
Since first the seer his mantle cast
Upon him by his father's plough
And pour'd the oil upon his brow,
Long years of mingled weal and woe;
And yet in retrospect they seem
A vapour lit by summer's glow,
A fugitive and fading dream.

As there he lay in tranquil faith
Before the shadowing gates of death,
What are those royal tears that shed
Their tribute on his reverend head?
What is that voice that mourns to-day
For Israel's chariot rapt away?
It may not be: his latest hour
Shall speak his God's unchanging power:
Lo, thrice the monarch strikes the ground,
And straightway thrice is victory given.
Thrice? unbelief alone can bound
The proved omnipotence of Heaven.

And has with us the dewy dawn
Long since been with the past withdrawn;
And after all the toil of noon
Will evening fade in twilight soon?
O Thou, who makest morn and even
Rich with the choicest hues of heaven,
Cast upon us Thy beams of light
And clothe us with Thy Spirit's might;
And it may be ere set of sun,
Before we enter into rest,
Our latest service humbly done
May be our faithfullest and best.