Hymns for Childhood/The Rainbow
THE RAINBOW.
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token
of a covenant between me and the earth.—Genesis ix. 13.
Soft falls the mild reviving shower
From April's changeful skies,
And rain-drops bend each trembling flower,
They tinge with richer dies.
Soon shall their genial influence call
A thousand buds to day,
Which, waiting but their balmy fall,
In hidden beauty lay.
E'en now full many a blossom's bell
With fragrance fills the shade;
And verdure clothes each grassy dell,
In brighter tints arrayed.
But mark! what arch of varied hue
From heaven to earth is bowed?
Haste; ere it vanish, haste to view
The Rainbow in the cloud!
How bright its glory! there behold
The emerald's verdant rays,
The topaz blends its hue of gold
With the deep ruby's blaze.
Yet not alone to charm thy sight
Was given the vision fair;–
Gaze on that arch of colored light,
And read God's mercy there.
It tells us that the mighty deep,
Fast by the Eternal chained,
No more o'er earth's domain shall sweep,
Awful and unrestrained.
It tells that seasons, heat and cold,
Fixed by his sovereign will,
Shall, in their course, bid man behold
Seed-time and harvest still.
That still the flower shall deck the field,
When vernal zephyrs blow;
That still the vine its fruit shall yield,
When autumn sunbeams glow.
Then, child of that fair earth! which yet
Smiles with each charm endowed,
Bless thou His name, whose mercy set
The Rainbow in the cloud!