the fall of lucifer.
103
What! the great angel host to meaner birth
Must yield; the new born being, man, must claim
The partial homage to the dust again,
And bow submissive to their Master's will!
God's holy angels, whose voices low and sweet,
Faint as the winds at eve, whose whisper'd sigh
Soft, tremulously wavering 'ere it die,
Falls as some crested wave on sandy shore,
In nature's murmuring music, fades evermore!
Thus pass'd away from heaven's glittering throng,
The angels' shout the cherubs' hallowed song.
A haughty host, with proud unfearing eye,
They stand their Maker to, alas! defy.
Rebellious to that Master's holy will!
But One, far nobler and more beauteous still,
The leader in their wild unhallow'd war,
Stood proudly lone;—his dazzling ether car
Glorious as sunset in some tropic clime,
Fair as the sinless earth, in golden harvest time.
Unruffled there with swanlike wings he stay'd,
Emboldened by the cherubs' proffered aid.
Bright Lucifer reflected from the orient shore
Of heaven's glassy sea, as dauntless still he bore
The bright, undimmed, and flashing sword of fire,
Spake, and fixed, all kindled with his ire,
His daring eyes on God's eternal throne!—
Must yield; the new born being, man, must claim
The partial homage to the dust again,
And bow submissive to their Master's will!
God's holy angels, whose voices low and sweet,
Faint as the winds at eve, whose whisper'd sigh
Soft, tremulously wavering 'ere it die,
Falls as some crested wave on sandy shore,
In nature's murmuring music, fades evermore!
Thus pass'd away from heaven's glittering throng,
The angels' shout the cherubs' hallowed song.
A haughty host, with proud unfearing eye,
They stand their Maker to, alas! defy.
Rebellious to that Master's holy will!
But One, far nobler and more beauteous still,
The leader in their wild unhallow'd war,
Stood proudly lone;—his dazzling ether car
Glorious as sunset in some tropic clime,
Fair as the sinless earth, in golden harvest time.
Unruffled there with swanlike wings he stay'd,
Emboldened by the cherubs' proffered aid.
Bright Lucifer reflected from the orient shore
Of heaven's glassy sea, as dauntless still he bore
The bright, undimmed, and flashing sword of fire,
Spake, and fixed, all kindled with his ire,
His daring eyes on God's eternal throne!—
