Page:Poems Griffith.djvu/73

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STARLIGHT MUSINGS.
67
Abroad by sword and wasting flame; ye shone
On Egypt's plains ere yet the pyramids
Lifted their bald and solemn heads to heaven;
Ye shone on Tadmor, Nineveh, and Rome:
Their glories and their ruins; ye have shone
Upon the living forms and on the graves
Of the departed generations; ye
Have shone on all that's been on earth, and now
Ye shine on all that is. Oh, in your beams
There is a world of bright and awful lore,
A deep spell woven of the centuries,
And though we scarce may read the mystic scroll,
It shines upon our spirit with a pure,
And deep, and mighty power, and charms away
Care, sin, and woe, and makes us strong to bear
The strifes of mortal being.

               Beautiful
And holy stars! ye seem in Paradise;
Ay, when your beams are resting on our brows,
We feel that we are bathed in what has been