Paradise.

Permit mine eyes to see
Part, or the whole of Thee,
O happy place!
Where all have grace,
And garlands shar'd,
For their reward;
Where each chaste soul
In long white stole,
And palms in hand,
Do ravish'd stand;
So in a ring,
The praises sing
Of Three in One
That fill the Throne;
While harps and viols then
To voices say, Amen.

(Lyra Eucharistica, second edition, 1865.)


Golden-winged, silver-winged,
    Winged with flashing flame,
Such a flight of birds I saw,
    Birds without a name:
Singing songs in their own tongue
    (Song of songs) they came.

One to another calling,
    Each answering each,
One to another calling
    In their proper speech:
High above my head they wheeled,
    Far out of reach.

On wings of flame they went and came
    With a cadenced clang,
Their silver wings tinkled,
    Their golden wings rang,
The wind it whistled through their wings
    Where in Heaven they sang.

They flashed and they darted
    Awhile before mine eyes,
Mounting, mounting, mounting still
    In haste to scale the skies -

Heaven is most fair; but fairer He
That made that fairest canopy.

Heaven is not given for our good works here;
Yet it is given to the labourer.

Open thy gates
To him who weeping waits,
And might come in,
But that held back by sin.
Let mercy be
So kind, to set me free,
And I will straight
Come in, or force the gate.

(Lyra Messianica, second edition, 1865.)


Once in a dream I saw the flowers
    That bud and bloom in Paradise;
    More fair they are than waking eyes
Have seen in all this world of ours.
And faint the perfume-bearing rose,
    And faint the lily on its stem,
And faint the perfect violet
    Compared with them.

I heard the songs of Paradise:
    Each bird sat singing in his place;
    A tender song so full of grace
It soared like incense to the skies.
Each bird sat singing to his mate
    Soft cooing notes among the trees:
The nightingale herself were cold
    To such as these.

I saw the fourfold River flow,
    And deep it was, with golden sand;
    It flowed between a mossy land
With murmured music grave and...