Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/The Night-Blowing Cereus

The Night-Blowing Cereus.

Can it be true? so fragrant and so fair,To give thy perfume to the dews of night?Can aught so beautiful shrink from the glare,And fade and sicken in the coming light?Yes, peerless flower! the heavens alone exhaleThy fragrance; while the glittering stars attest,And incense, wafted from the midnight gale,Untainted rises from thy spotless breast.Sweet emblem of that faith, which seeks, apartFrom human praise, to love and work unseen;That gives to heaven an undivided heart—In sorrow steadfast, and in joy serene!Anchored on God, no adverse cloud can dim;Her eye, unaltered, still is fixed on Him!