Serene will be our days and bright, And happy will our nature be, When love is an unerring light, And joy its own security. And blest are they who in the main This faith, even now, do entertain: Live in the spirit of this creed; Yet find that other strength, according to their need. I, loving freedom, and untried; No sport of every random gust, Too blindly have reposed my trust: The task imposed, from day to day; But thee I now would serve more strictly, if I may. Through no disturbance of my soul, Or strong compunction in me wrought, But in the quietness of thought: Stern Lawgiver! yet thou dost wear The Godhead's most benignant grace; As is the smile upon thy face: Flowers laugh before thee on their beds And Fragrance in thy footing treads; 3; Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong; And the most ancient Heavens through Thee are fresh and strong. To humbler functions, awful Power! I call thee: I myself commend Give unto me, made lowly wise, The spirit of self-sacrifice; The confidence of reason give; And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live! I. PREFATORY SONNET. 4 NUNS fret not at their Convent's narrow room; In truth, the prison, unto which we doom Ourselves, no prison is: and hence to me, In sundry moods, 'twas pastime to be bound Within the Sonnet's scanty plot of ground: Pleased if some Souls (for such there needs must be) Who have felt the weight of too much liberty, Should find short solace there, as I have found. |