THE SOUND OF BELLS.
Reading edition
O HAPPY bells that thrill the air Of tranquil English summer-eves, When stirless hang the aspen leaves, And Silence listens everywhere.
And sinks and swells the tender chime, Sad, as regret for buried fears, Sweet, as repentant yearning tears— The fit voice of the holy time.
O wond’rous voice! O mystic sound! We listen, and our thoughts aspire Like spiritual flame, from fire That idly smoulders on the ground.
Forgotten longings have new birth For better, purer, nobler life, Lifted above the noisy strife That drowns the music of this earth.
And human sorrow seems to be A link unto diviner things, The budding of the spirit’s wings That only thus can soar—and see.
The twilight fades—the sweet bells cease, The common world’s come back again, But for a little space, its pain And weariness are steep’d in peace.