A Pean

A song for the full heart’s easing,
     A song of joy and praise,
With a melody never ceasing,
     The jubilant Pean raise;
To the Lord of land and ocean,
     To the man-soul’s Father, sing,
To the End of all devotion
     And Being’s primal Spring.

He gave the beautiful meadows
     Their carpet of gold and green
And sent His lights and shadows
     To dance oer the joyous scene;
He stars with keen snow crystals
     The ermine of winter’s king,
And wheels His bright celestials
     O’er the north on fiery wing.

He taught the brooks to gurgle
     Low melodies in the glade,
And the Zodiac’s mighty circle
     Its mystic serenade;
On the thigh of red Orion
     He hung His flashing glaive,
To the dew-born dandelion
     Its starry beauty gave.

When His eagle, Storm, convulses
     The deeps with his cloven wing,
He lives in the mighty pulses
     That throb with endless swing;
And a whisper of His presence
     Steals over the silent pool,
Where the lilies nod with pleasance
     Of their own sweets, reeling full.

But the dearest gift of the Father,—
     Wedding earth to the heavens above,
Where the luminous angels gather,—
     Is the boon of living love!
Our hearts throb stronger and higher
     Than ocean racked by storm,
And the sun lends not such fire
     As makes our bosoms warm.

Invisible loves are near us,
     Their hands with ours entwine,
Their whispered voices cheer us
     With thrills of the Love Divine.
Then sing for the full heart’s easing,
     A song of loving praise:
With a melody still increasing,
     The grateful Pean raise.