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ANNIVERSARY POEM.
189
VI.
No festival like ours: yet while we meet,
We might discern, had we clairvoyant powers,
The silent ecstasies of mingling flowers;
The electric currents in a kindling heat
Of mutual joy; the sounding rush and jar
Of reveling tides; mount greeting mount afar,
Through roar of avalanches white and fleet;
No festival like ours: yet while we meet,
We might discern, had we clairvoyant powers,
The silent ecstasies of mingling flowers;
The electric currents in a kindling heat
Of mutual joy; the sounding rush and jar
Of reveling tides; mount greeting mount afar,
Through roar of avalanches white and fleet;
VII.
The soft attraction of June clouds, that shine,
Yet hide the sun till day is tinged with dark;
As cherub-wings, flung radiant o'er the ark,
Shielded from mortal eyes its light divine;
And the recurrent, glad concourse above
Of burning stars that still approach and love,
And lean from their curved orbit's golden line.
The soft attraction of June clouds, that shine,
Yet hide the sun till day is tinged with dark;
As cherub-wings, flung radiant o'er the ark,
Shielded from mortal eyes its light divine;
And the recurrent, glad concourse above
Of burning stars that still approach and love,
And lean from their curved orbit's golden line.
VIII.
But we have nobler union: being made
Sentient of God and Truth and our own souls;
And while each delicate pulse within us rolls
Quickened with friendly fervor, we are weighed
In Heaven's just balance, and all things beside
Found less than we,—flower, mount, electric tide,
Cloud, star, and sun,—through each material grade.
But we have nobler union: being made
Sentient of God and Truth and our own souls;
And while each delicate pulse within us rolls
Quickened with friendly fervor, we are weighed
In Heaven's just balance, and all things beside
Found less than we,—flower, mount, electric tide,
Cloud, star, and sun,—through each material grade.
