Poems (Dudley)/Modern Missionary Hymn

by Marion Vienna Churchill Dudley

MODERN MISSIONARY HYMN.

O WHITE wings flying eastward,
 O white wings flying west,
O steam-throats speaking blessings
 Across the ocean's breast!
Ye are the mighty agents
 That link our human hands,
And tell a common heaven,
 To near and distant lands.

Fair Commerce!—Groveling Priestess,
 They say who know thee not,—
Thy rising fame shall brighten
 Till darkness is forgot;
Earth ever crowns the victor to whom is honor due
 And hands shall twine the laurel
Who plait for thee the rue;

Thy silent voice, firm speaking,
 Swung wide the ponderous doors,
That hid the sleeping nations
 On Oriental shores;
Pacific's "Island Empire"
 Unclosed her almond eyes,
And met the new effulgence
 With radiant, glad surprise;

While tawny-skinned Celestials,
 Behind their moldering wall,
Shook oft their poppied slumber
 And answered to thy call;
Old India, torpid, drunken
 With wine of elder years,
Revives to sing the music
 Thou'rt sounding in her ears;

Sweep on, O stately Priestess!
 Speed swift from main to main;
Not King nor Nation scorneth
 To swell thy splendid train;
The poor ones rise to bless thee,
 The lowly and the proud
Alike shall send before thee
 Their acclamations loud.

Thou Muse of future Poets!
 Thou prayer we've prayed so long!
Speed on to swift fulfilment
 The vision and the song;
Upon the mighty headlands
 Where Prophet's rainbows play,
Behold, we catch the dawning
 And glory of thy day!