Classic Poem

O for Evening's brownest shade!
Where the breezes play by stealth
In the forest-cinctured glade,
Round the hermitage of Health :
While the noon-bright mountains blaze
In the sun's tormenting rays.

O'er the sick and sultry plains,
Through the dim delirious air,
Agonising silence reigns,
And the wanness of despair:
N ATURE faints with fervent heat,
Ah! her pulse hath ceased to beat.

Now, in deep and dreadful gloom,
Clouds on clouds portentous spread,
Black as if the day of doom
Hung o'er N ATURE 's shrinking head:
Lo! the lightning breaks from high,
— God is coming! — God is nigh!

Hear ye not his chariot-wheels,
As the mighty thunder rolls?
N ATURE , startled N ATURE reels,
From the centre to the poles;
Tremble! — Ocean, Earth, and Sky,
Tremble! — God is passing by!

Darkness, wild with horror, forms
His mysterious hiding-place;
Should He, from his ark of storms,
Rend the veil, and show his face,
At the judgment of his eye
All the universe would die.

Brighter, broader lightnings flash,
Hail and rain tempestuous fall;
Louder, deeper thunders crash,
Desolation threatens all;
Struggling N ATURE gasps for breath
In the agony of death.

G OD OF V ENGEANCE , from above
While thine awful bolts are hurl'd,
O remember thou art L OVE !
Spare! O spare a guilty world!
Stay Thy flaming wrath awhile,
See Thy bow of promise smile.

Welcome in the eastern cloud,
Messenger of Mercy still;
Now, ye winds, proclaim aloud,
— Peace on Earth, to Man good will. —
N ATURE ! G OD 's repenting child,
See thy Parent reconciled.

Hark the nightingale, afar,
Sweetly sings the sun to rest,
And awakes the evening star
In the rosy-tinted west:
While the moon's enchanting eye
Opens Paradise on high.

Cool and tranquil is the night,
N ATURE 's sore afflictions cease,
For the storm, that spent its might,
Was a covenant of peace;
V ENGEANCE drops her harmless rod:
M ERCY is the POWER OF GOD.