Woman with her baby, sitting vis a vis;
Baby keeps a-squalling, woman looks at me;
Asks about the distance says 't is tiresome talking,
Noises of the cars are so very shocking!
Market woman, careful of the precious casket,
Knowing eggs are eggs, tightly holds her baskets;
Feeling that a smash, if it came, would surely
Send her eggs to pot rather prematurely.
Singing through the forests, rattling over ridges,
Shooting under arches, rumbling over bridges,
Whizzing through the mountains, buzzing o'er the vale,Bless me! this is pleasant, riding on the rail!
Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song:
To heavenly themes sublimer strains belong.
The mossy fountains and the sylvan shades,
The dreams of Pindus and the Aonian maids,
Delight no more-O Thou my voice inspire,
Who touched Isaiah's hallowed lips with fire!
Rapt into future times, the bard begun :
A virgin shall conceive, a virgin bear a son!
From Jesse's root behold a branch arise,
Whose sacred flower with fragrance fills the skies:
The etheral spirit o'er its leaves shall move,
And on its top descends the mystic dove.
Ye heavens! from high the dewy nectar pour,
And in soft silence shed the kindly shower!
The sick and weak the healing plant shall aid,
From storms a shelter, and from heat a shade.
All crimes shall cease, and ancient fraud shall fail;
Returning justice lift aloft her scale;
Peace o'er the world her olive wand extend,
And white-robed innocence from heaven descend.
Swiftly the years, and rise the expected morn!
Oh, spring to light, auspicious Babe! be born.
See nature hastes her earliest wreaths to bring,
With all the incense of the breathing spring;
See lofty Lebanon his head advance;
See nodding forests on the mountains dance;
See spicy clouds from lowly Sharon rise,
And Carmel's flowery top perfumes the skies!
Hark! a glad voice the lonely desert cheers;
Prepare the way! A God, a God, appears!
A God, a God! the vocal hills reply;
The rocks proclaim the approaching deity.
Lo, earth receives him from the bending skies!
Sink down, ye mountains, and ye valleys, rise!
With heads declined, ye cedars, homage pay;
Be smooth, ye rocks; ye rapid floods, give way!
The Savior comes! by ancient bards foretold.
Hear him, ye deaf, and all ye blind, behold
He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,
And on the sightless eyeball pour the day:
'Tis he the obstructed paths of sound shall clear,
And bid new music charm the unfolding ear:
The dumb shall sing, the lame his crutch forego,
And leap exulting like the bounding roe.
No sigh, no murmur the wide world shall hear,
From every face he wipes off every tear.
In adamantine chains shall death be bound,
And hell's grim tyrant feel the eternal wound.
As the good shepherd tends his fleecy care,
Seeks freshest pasture and the purest air,
Explores the lost, the wandering sheep directs,
By day o'ersees them, and by night protects;
The tender lambs he raises in his arms,
Feeds from his hand, and in his bosom warms;
Thus shall mankind his guardian care engage,
The promised father of the future age.
No more shall nation against nation rise,
Nor ardent warriors meet with hateful eyes,
Nor fields with gleaming steel be covered o'er,
The brazen trumpets kindle rage no more;
But useless lances into scythes shall bend,
And the broad falchion in a plowshare end.
Then palaces shall rise; the joyful son
Shall finish what his short-lived sire begun;
Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield,
And the same hand that sowed, shall reap the field.
The swain in barren deserts with surprize
See lilies spring, and sudden verdure rise;
And starts amidst the thrifty wilds to hear
New falls of water murmuring in his ear.
On rifted rocks the dragon's late abodes,
The green reed trembles, and the bulrush nods.
Waste sandy valleys, once perplexed with thorn,
The spiry fir and shapely box adorn!
To leafless shrubs the flowering palms succeed,
And odorous myrtle to the noisome weed.
The lambs with wolves shall graze the verdant mead, And boys in flowery bands the tiger lead;
The steer and lion at one crib shall meet,
And harmless serpents lick the pilgrim's feet;
The smiling infant in his hand shall take
The crested basilisk and speckled snake,
Pleased, the green luster of the scales survey,
And with their forky tongue shall innocently play.
Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise!
Exalt thy towery head, and lift thy eyes!
See a long race thy spacious courts adorn;
See future sons and daughters, yet unborn,
In crowding ranks on every side arise,
Demanding life, impatient for the skies!
See barbarous nations at thy gates attend,
Walk in thy light, and in thy temple bend;
See thy bright altars thronged with prostrate kings,
And heaped with products of Sabaean springs!
For thee Idume's spicy forests blow,
And seeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow.
See heaven its sparkling portals wide display,
And break upon thee in a flood of day.
No more the rising sun shall gild the morn,
Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn;
But lost, dissolved in thy superior rays,
One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze
O'erflow thy courts: the light himself shall shine
Revealed, and God's eternal day be thine!
The seas shall waste, the skies in smoke decay,
Rocks fall to dust, and mountains melt away;
But fixt his word, his saving power remains;
Thy realm forever lasts, thy own Messiah reigns!
DROP A PEBBLE IN THE WATER
Drop a pebble in the water. Just a splash, and it is gone; But there are half a hundred ripples curling on, and on,
Spreading, spreading, spreading from the center flowing on out to the sea;
But there's not a way of telling where the end is going to be.
Drop an unkind word or careless, in a minute it is gone; But there are half a hundred ripples circling on, and on, and on.
They are spreading, spreading, spreading from the center as they go.
And there's not a way to stop them once you've started them to flow.
Drop an unkind word or careless, in a minute you forget: But there are little waves a-flowing, and there are ripples circling yet,
And perhaps in some sad heart a mighty wave of tears you've stirred.
And disturbed a life that's happy when you dropt that unkind word.
Drop a word of cheer and kindness. Just a flash and it is gone:
But there are half a hundred ripples circling on, and on,
Bearing hope and joy and comfort on each splashing, dashing wave.
Till you'd not believe the volume of the one kind word you gave.
Drop a word of cheer and kindness, in a minute you forget.
But there's gladness still a-swelling and there's joy a-circling yet.
And you've rolled a wave of comfort whose sweet music can be heard
Over miles and miles of water, just by dropping a kind word.
O, good painter, tell me true,
Has your hand the cunning to draw.
Shapes of things that you never saw?
Aye? Well, here is an order for you.
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