- THE MISERERE
by: Harriet Beecher Stowe
(1811-1896)
- OT of the earth that music! all
things fade;
- Vanish the pictured walls! and, one by one,
- The starry candles silently expire!
-
- And now, O Jesus! round that silent cross
- A moment's pause, a hush as of the grave.
- Now rises slow a silver mist of sound,
- And all the heavens break out in drops of grief;
- A rain of sobbing sweetness, swelling, dying,
- Voice into voice inweaving with sweet throbs,
- And fluttering pulses of impassioned moan, --
- Veiled voices, in whose wailing there is awe,
- And mysteries of love and agony,
- A yearning anguish of celestial souls,
- A shiver as of wings trembling the air,
- As if God's shining doves, his spotless birds,
- Wailed with a nightingale's heart-break of grief,
- In this their starless night, when for our sins
- Their sun, their life, their love, hangs darkly there,
- Like a slain lamb, bleeding his life away!
"The Miserere" is reprinted
from The Writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Vol. 15. Harriet
Beecher Stowe. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1896. |
MORE POEMS BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE |
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