Hymn - STORMS! that Thunder through the Sky
STORMS! that thunder through the sky,
Answer with your whirlwind cry;
As ye ride in fury past,
Have ye not a bolt to blast
All the pride of tyranny?
II.
LIGHTNINGS! with your lurid breath;
Fell TORNADOES! wing’d with death;
Will ye not avenge the wrong
Which the slave hath suffer’d long,
Where in chains he perisheth?
III.
SWORD and FAMINE! PLAGUE and FIRE!
Wherefore will ye not conspire
To redeem the long oppress’d;
And in wrath make manifest
That ye work your God’s desire?
IV.
EARTH, O EARTH! How sleep thy jaws!
FLOODS of ruin wherefore pause?
Servants of the Last and First,
Why doth wrath delay to burst!
And avenge his broken laws?
V.
Hush! vain heart, the impious tho’t;
Not at mortal will is wrought
Man’s redemption by the might
Of remorseless plagues, which smite
Tyrants, merciless and haught.
VI.
Wait the righteous will of God;
He shall break the gyve and rod;
And the oppressor’s dark offence
He alone may recompence—
And redeem the lowly-trod.
- Title
- Hymn - STORMS! that Thunder through the Sky
- First Line
- STORMS! that thunder through the sky
- Creator
-
George Shepard Burleigh
- Bibliographic Citation
- Bolles, William, Select Hymns, Designed for Social and Private Worship. Including Many Never Before Published. A New Edition Revised and Enlarged. New London: William Bolles, 1842. Hymn # 232, p. 212-213. Held at the Charles E. Shain Library, Linda Lear Center for Special Collections and Archives, Connecticut College, New London.
- Date
- 1842
- Period
- Early
- Subject
- Abolition
- Weather - Storms
- Comments
- Under E.D.H. pseudonym
- An extended metaphor, wishing the fury of storms to become divine vengeance for slavery; ultimately seeming to lapse into quietism awaiting God's will.
- The various storms and pestilences are all capitalized in the original, including the first word of the title. I have retained this here because it is obviously intentional
- Related Resource
- Other poems by George S. Burleigh in William Bolles' Hymn Collection
-
Hymn - Hark to the Bitter Wail
-
Hymn - Why o'er the Mighty Waters
-
Hymn - When Israel Left the Spoiler's Hand
-
Hymn - Lord! While We Gather in thy Name
-
Hymn - Ere Yet the Soul of Man
-
Hymn - Eternal Spirit; When We Bow
-
Hymn - For the Crying of the Needy
-
Hymn - Where is the promise that day is advancing
-
Hymn - There is no evil thing
-
Hymn - Look down in mercy from above
- Rating
- ★★