Hymn I.
1.
Sweet Morn ! from countless cups of
gold1
gold1
Thou liftest reverently on high2
More incense fine than earth can hold,3
To fill the sky.4
2.
One interfusion wide of love,5
Thine airs and odours moist ascend,6
And, ’mid the azure depths above,7
With light they blend.8
3.
The lark, by his own carol blest,9
From thy green harbours eager
springs ;10
springs ;10
And his large heart in little breast11
Exulting sings.12
4.
On lands and seas, on fields and
woods,13
woods,13
And cottage roofs and ancient spires,14
O, Morn ! thy gaze creative broods,15
While night retires.16
5.
Aloft the mountain ridges beam17
Above their quiet steeps of grey ;18
The eastern clouds with glory stream,19
And vital day.20
6.
By valleys dank, and river’s brim,21
Through corn-clad fields and wizard
groves,22
groves,22
O’er dazzling tracks and hollows dim,23
One spirit roves.24
7.
The broad-helm’d oak-tree’s endless
growth,25
growth,25
The mossy stone that crowns the hill,26
The violet’s breast, to gazers loath,27
In sunshine thrill.28
8.
A joy from hidden paradise29
Is rippling down the shiny brooks,30
With beauty like the gleams of eyes31
In tenderest looks.32
9.
Where’er the vision’s boundaries glance33
Existence swells with teeming power,34
And all illumined earth’s expanse35
Inhales the hour.36
10.
Not sands, and rocks, and seas im-
mense,37
mense,37
And vapours thin and halls of air ;38
Not these alone, with kindled glance,39
The splendour share.40
11.
The fly his jocund round inweaves,41
With choral strain the birds salute42
The voiceful flocks, and nothing
grieves,43
grieves,43
And nought is mute.44
12.
In Man, O Morn ! a loftier good,45
With conscious blessing, fills the soul,46
A life by reason understood,47
Which metes the whole.48
13.
With healthful pulse, and tranquil fire,49
Which plays at ease in every limb,50
His thoughts uncheck’d to Heaven
aspire,51
aspire,51
Reveal’d in him.52
14.
To thousand tasks of fruitful hope,53
With skill against his toil he bends,54
And finds his work’s determined scope55
Where’er he wends.56
15.
From earth, and earthly toil and strife,57
To deathless aims his love may rise,58
Each dawn may wake to better life,59
With purer eyes.60
16.
Such grace from thee, O God! be
ours,61
ours,61
Renew’d with every morning’s ray,62
And fresh’ning still with added flowers,63
Each future day.64
17.
To Man is given one primal star ;65
One day-spring’s beam has dawn’d
below ;66
below ;66
From thine our inmost glories are,67
With thine we glow.68
18.
Like earth, awake, and warm and bright69
With joy the spirit moves and burns ;70
So up to thee, O Fount of Light !71
Our light returns.72