LINES. WRITTEN AFTER HEARING SOME BEAUTIFUL SINGING IN A CONVENT CHURCH AT ROME.

Sweet voices! seldom mortal ear Strains of such potency might hear; My soul, that listened, seemed quite gone, Dissolved in sweetness, and anon I was borne upward, till I trod Among the hierarchy of God. And when they ceased, as time must bring An end to every sweetest thing, With what reluctancy came back My spirits to their wonted track, And how I loathed the common life, The daily and recurring strife With petty sins, the lowly road And being’s ordinary load. Why after such a solemn mood Should any meaner thought intrude? Why will not heaven hereafter give, That we for evermore may live Thus at our spirit’s topmost bent? This said I in my discontent. But give me, Lord, a wiser heart; These seasons come, and they depart, These seasons, and those higher still, When we are given to have our fill Of strength and life and joy with thee, And brightness of thy face to see. They come, or we could never guess Of heaven’s sublimer blessedness; They come, to be our strength and cheer In other times, in doubt or fear, Or should our solitary way Lie through the desert many a day. They go, they leave us blank and dead, That we may learn, when they are fled, We are but vapours which have won A moment’s brightness from the sun, And which it may at pleasure fill With splendour, or unclothe at will. Well for us they do not abide, Or we should lose ourselves in pride, And be as angels—but as they Who on the battlements of day Walked, gazing on their power and might, Till they grew giddy in their height. Then welcome every nobler time, When, out of reach of earth’s dull chime, ’Tis ours to drink with purgèd ears The music of the solemn spheres, Or in the desert to have sight Of those enchanted cities bright, Which sensual eye can never see: Thrice welcome may such seasons be. But welcome too the common way, The lowly duties of the day, And all which makes and keeps us low, Which teaches us ourselves to know, That we, who do our lineage high Draw from beyond the starry sky, Are yet upon the other side To earth and to its dust allied.