Hemans Miscellaneous Poetry 6/Church Music
Fraser’s Magazine, 1831, page 603
CHURCH MUSIC.—BY MRS. HEMANS.
"All the train
Sang Hallelujah, as the sound of seas."—Milton.
Again! oh, send those anthem-notes again
Thro' the arch'd roof in triumph to the sky!
Bid the old tombs give echoes to the strain,
The banners tremble, as with victory!
Sing them once more!—they waft my soul away,
High where no shadow of the past is thrown;
No earthly passion, thro' th' exulting lay,
Breathes mournfully one haunting under-tone.
All is of Heaven!—yet wherefore to mine eye,
Gush the quick tears unbidden from their source,
E'en while the waves of that strong harmony,
Sweep with my spirit on their sounding course?
Wherefore must rapture its full tide reveal,
Thus by the signs betokening sorrow's power?
—Oh! is it not, that humbly we may feel
Our nature's limits in its proudest hour!