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Page:The seven great hymns of the mediaeval church - 1902.djvu/70

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40
The Celeſtial Country.

and it is great, who does not feel that the poor Cluniac monk's is the more real and deep utterance?'

"The Ode, however, is well worthy of a tranſlation, and here is an attempt :

IT KINDLES ALL MY SOUL.

It kindles all my ſoul,
My Country's lovelineſs! Thoſe ſtarry choirs
That watch around the pole,
And the moon's tender light, and heavenly fires
Through golden halls that roll.
O chorus of the night! O planets, ſworn
The muſic of the ſpheres
To follow! Lovely watchers, that think ſcorn
To reſt till day appears!
Me, for celeſtial homes of glory born,
Why here, oh why ſo long,
Do ye behold an exile from on high?
Here, O ye ſhining throng,
With lilies ſpread the mound where I ſhall lie:
Here let me drop my chain,
And duſt to duſt returning, caſt away
The trammels that remain;
The reſt of me ſhall ſpring to endleſs day!"

4  Theſe two lines are taken from the laſt London edition. In ſome editions they are thus given:

"And the perfect from the ſhattered,
and the fallen from them that ſtand."

5 "Leah and Rachel are allegorized in three different ways by mediæval poets. Firſt, of the active and contemplative life; and