A. Cleveland Coxe

“ HYMN IN HOLY WEEK.
HYMN IN HOLY WEEK.
1.
Who is this, with garments gory,
Triumphing from Bozrah’s way;
This, that weareth robes of glory,
Bright, with more than vict’ry’s ray;
Who is this unwearied comer,
From his journey’s sultry length,
Travelling through Idume’s summer,
In the greatness of his strength!
2.
Wherefore red in thine apparel,
Like the conquerors of Earth,
And arrayed like those who carol
O’er the reeking vineyard’s mirth;
Who art thou, the valleys seeking,
Where our peaceful harvests wave! ”

“ I, like thee to live, will try;
Thou for me didst poor become,
And a manger was thine home:
Oh for all thou didst endure,
Help me Lord, to love the poor.
3.
Smiling on the Virgin’s knee,
Brightly went the day with thee;
Peace and love were round thee shed,
And God’s angels watched thy bed;
So may I improve the light,
So be guarded safe by night.
4.
Help me too, like thee to grow
Dear to God, and man below!
And from childhood’s guileless heart,
Saviour, let me never part,
Since like children, all must be,
Who, at last, would live with thee!
THY GLORY, LORD.
THY GLORY, LORD.
Exod. ”

“ The thoughts of joys our childhood gave,
Like flowers upon a mother’s grave,
How laden comes their sad perfume
With all that hath inspired their bloom!
The dear beloved—the only fair,
Our heart’s best part is mould’ring there;
And thoughts that blossom from the urn,
Are dust, and unto dust return.
XXX.
The breeze that o’er that mother’s tomb
Comes idly, as to garden-beds,
Is sober’d by the flowers’ perfume,
And sadness, all around, it sheds.
The very grass it stirs to life,
Doth seem with old remembrance rife,
And every blade instinct, doth move
To wake the tenderness of love. ”

“ And dread was the sight to the recreant’s mirth,
Who praised his grim idol, while God was on earth.
4.
Then flew the swift shudder electric, of fear,
And stole the breath-whisper of guilt on the ear,
And the dancer was dumb at his orgies abhorr’d
And the renegade priest knew the friend of the Lord.
5.
And the virgins of Judah are lightsome of limb,
As they whirl round the Calf to a love-breathing hymn;
And the damsel’s swift heel hath a language that speaks,
And the hue of her heart flushes warm on her cheeks. ”

“ Where mountain’s heave their giant birth,
Where rolls that sea of thine;
That glorious sea, that mirrors thee
More wonderful and vast,
Whose throne was reared, eternally
In clouds and darkness cast.
2.
Thy glory, Lord, though thou art great,
Is not thy power alone,
Though seraphs in thy service wait,
And burn before thy throne;
Thy glory, Lord, is not the sword
Of vengeance on thy thigh ”

“ Oh then, how blest each festal morn,
When Christ arose, when Christ was born,
And who but loves thee, Easter-day,
Queen of old feasts, so bright, so gay,
So dear to every Christian soul,
O’er all the Earth, from pole to pole!
LXXXVI.
For Heaven comes down to Earth, in thee,
That worship may be harmony.
And years on years away have roll’d,
But still the Easter chimes are toll’d. ”

“ Ere burst o’er the mountains, the beams of the morn.
4.
And sudden, all heaven with melody fired,
In rapt adoration the chorus prolong:
And cherub, and seraph with rapture inspired,
The glad allelluia attune in their song:
5.
To God in the Highest all glory be given;
And peace be to men of good-will upon earth,
For down his Redeemer is stooping from heaven,
Rejoice all ye lands—’tis the morn of his birth.
OH WOULD I WERE HAPPY.
OH WOULD I WERE HAPPY.
1833. ”

“ Unlike all other love but thine,
Like none but Jesu, none but Thee
Thou bleeding Lamb of Calvary!
4.
Give me, Thou glorious Lamb of God,
Daily to walk, where Thou hast trod,
And in adoring rapture grow,
As in thy lowly steps I go.
Give me to ponder, more and more,
Thy word’s, and thy example’s lore,
That walking here, my God with Thee,
Still as my days my strength may be.
THERE’S NOT A CLOUD.
THERE’S NOT A CLOUD.
Heaviness may endure for a night. ”

“ And weary me with its vain-glory and mirth;
If penance can wash out my guiltiness deep,
In sackcloth and ashes my crimes I will weep.
3.
But hearken! what voice is it falls on mine ear!
How gracious the message, the tidings how dear;
’Tis the voice of the Saviour that promiseth rest,
To the children of sorrow in mercy addrest,
Oh hear and be happy, yes happy in truth,
’Twill solace thine age, and ’twill strengthen thy youth.
4.
Oh come to the waters! come taste of the wave,
The waters of life, ever potent to save! ”

“ And boyhood’s mirth is but a name,
Ere boyhood’s tears are dried,
And hopes in golden hues that came,
Like golden dreams have died.
4.
And false thy promise, empty Earth,
I trust thy show no more;
I’ve learned of my immortal birth,
And spurn this stranger shore;
And Heaven, my home, my haven bright,
To Heaven be vowed my shell;
My soul to its inspiring light,
And fancy’s hallowed spell.
THERE IS A LAND.
THERE IS A LAND.
And I said, O that I had wings like
a dove, then would I fly away and
be at rest! Psalter.
1.
There is a land, like Eden fair,
But more than Eden blest ”

“ And who shall bear his second birth
To worse than Time—Eternity!
2.
Lord, in thy likeness let me wake,
So shall my soul be satisfied,
When from the mouldering tomb I break,
And see in clouds, the Lamb that died;
As roamed the dove the deluge dark,
My spirit roams Life’s troubled sea,
But thou shalt be the wanderer’s ark,
That knows no rest, till home with Thee.
STANZAS.
STANZAS.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. ”

“ Of the sweet Zenaida Dove.
2.
He is far from kin and kind,
He has seen his comrades die;
Now the bold and dark of mind,
Is as dim and dark of eye.
She is singing, in her home,
Innocent and soft as love;
Ne’er a wish or wing to roam
Hath the sweet Zenaida Dove.
3.
Then, as soft the carol pours,
Will he turn his languid eye
Round the cypress-shaded shores,
Feeling it is hard to die. ”

“ And he seem’d as when hoar-frost hath stiffen’d the flower;
’Twas the blight of the Lord, ’twas the touch of his power.
5.
But still was the starlight—while, shrouded and hid,
Death brooded o’er palace, and cold pyramid;
No voice on the midnight; no larum of wrath;
No sound of the whirlwind—but only its path.
6.
And a cry was in Egypt, when rose the red morn,
For a thousand pale mothers bewail’d their first born ”

“ Let out thy soul, and pray
Not for thy home alone!
Away—in prayer, away!
Make all the world thine own!
Let out thy soul in prayer;
Oh, let thy spirit grow!
God gives thee sun and air;
Let the full blossom blow! ”

“ That crowns thine awful head,
Nor e’en the amber lustre bright
Around thy presence shed:
For there the hymn, of cherubim,
And lyres that flame above,
Proclaims it, to thy glory dim,
The glory of thy love!
HYMN FOR THE DEAD.
HYMN FOR THE DEAD.
Help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth.
1. SOLO.
So, from the earth, the godly go!
Help, Lord, the faithful fail!
Ah, who are left to thee below,
Ah, what to soothe our sorrow’s flow,
Save the bright hope that calms our wo,
As, o’er the dead, we wail!
2. TRIO.
’Tis o’er the early dead we weep ”

“ And this, while the godless up-torn by the root,
Shall blast in the blossom and blight in the fruit!
Oh dreadful their lot! Like the chaff they shall fly,
Or the sands of the waste when the whirlwind is high.
OUR GOD IN GLORY.
OUR GOD IN GLORY.
Dominus regnavit. ”

“ This Festival is the counterpart of Easter—telling of Death, as Easter does of Resurrection; and as God has given to the latter, the reviving blossom and the sweet Spring-time; so He has set the former in the Autumn, and strewed the sere leaves in our path to Church, as its becoming symbol. ”

“ So those Easter chimings sound:
All the Earth is gay and bright,
Risen with the Lord to light;
Yes,—and yonder sun doth see
Many a Christian on his knee,
Singing, as he bends to pray,
Christ, our Lord, is risen to-day! ”

“ And all the sects of sin!
For all who love in heart,
But have not found the way,
Pray—and thy tears will start!
’Twas so the Lord did pray.
8.
Now, when the hordes of Rome
Are up against the Lord,
All churches are our home,
And Prayer our mighty sword!
The saints’ communion—one,
One Lord—one Faith—one birth,
Oh, pray to God the Son,
For all his Church on Earth.
WATCHWORDS.
WATCHWORDS.
A hymn for the times. ”

“ Upon my meditative mood,
As stretched in lonely cell or bower,
I feel the shades, that o’er the lea,
Come lengthening till they fall on me
And veil my pensive hour.
2.
For I have loved the Eventide,
While yet I knew not why;
But now, since early friends have died,
’Tis dear as memory.
It minds me of their quiet sleep
’Neath many a grassy mound; or deep
The floods of far-off seas below!
It tells me how my years steal on,
How strong and lovely ones have gone,
And how we all must go!
3.
My name shall ne’er be writ with those
Whose friendships death can end ”

“ And thus the true Catholic always finds himself living in harmony with nature; for the Author of Nature is the Author of his Holy Religion. He has a joy which the world knows not, in beholding all the works of God. They have a place in that system of the universe, of which the Catholic Church is a part; and Niagara, and Mont Blanc, possess for him a ritual character, as really as the Te Deum, in which he sings, “All the earth doth worship thee the Father Everlasting.”
The warlocks are at their play.
Strophe vii.
Such is one of the familiar superstitions concerning Halloween. ”

“ This is a free translation of some select portions of the Dies Iræ; so well known to English readers, by the fine imitation of Scott; and to scholars, by the impressive use made of it by Goethe in his Faust. I have partially imitated, as well as translated, several passages; that famous one, in particular, which is known as the Rex Tremendæ. In so doing, I have been forced, however, to sacrifice, in some degree, a desirable gracefulness of expression, for the sake of approximating, in some degree, to the sonorous melody of the Latin.
Not unto us, oh Lord, our God. ”

“ And childhood mourns like hoary Eld a thousand pleasures gone,
And weeps o’er disappointed hours, while yet ’tis early dawn!
5.
Oh can it be that we have lived, before we wept on earth,
And measured out our spirit’s path, before our body’s birth!
Howe’er it be—the babe new-born, begins its life with tears,
And age that weeps o’er childhood gone, but mimics childhood’s years.
CANZONET.
CANZONET.
To the Music of Von Weber’s last Waltz. ”

“ NOTES. All-Saints’ day, as all good Christians should remember, is the first day of November. Halloween, is a sweet Scotticism for its vigil, familiar to the reader of Burns, but which I have grudged to the degrading use which has been made of it, by that unhappy bard.
Instead of the profane rites by which it has been desecrated, I have supposed it observed in Christian homes, by fire-side tales and recollections of the departed, and conversations about the state of Intermediate Repose. ”

“ As if life’s wishes all were made, before an eyelid opes!
Sure never came an hour to me, that brought not in its train,
Some blight to fair and fond desire, and longings nursed in vain.
3.
They dream who tell of life’s long hours, its brightest is its first,
When o’er the sparkling dews of youth, the hues of morning burst ”

“ Jephtha’s daughter, young and fair;
Weep for her that doth abide
On the lonely mountain there.
Many flowers like her have perished
E’er their scented buds could ope;
But no flower was e’er so cherished,
Ne’er like her a hero’s hope.
Many maids have gone to slaughter,
But they ne’er so lovely were:
Weep, oh weep for Jephtha’s daughter,
Weep ye lovely, weep for her.
THE LAST PLAGUE OF EGYPT.
THE LAST PLAGUE OF EGYPT.
1. ”

“ And shriek’d the young wife o’er the child of her pain,
That never should breathe on her bosom again;
And breasts that were warm with their nursling before,
But heaved, in their grief, for the boy that she bore. ”

“ I have put together, this hymn, and the translation of the Te Deum, which follows, because the Non Nobis was once always associated with that sublime doxology, in Thanksgiving services; though now seldom heard of, except as performed at public dinners, on the removal of the cloth. The exclamation of Henry V., on the field of Agincourt, is familiar to all:
Do we all holy rites,
Let there be sung Non Nobis and Te Deum.
It is interesting, also, to remember, that Te Deum was the first Christian thanksgiving ever offered to God, in this hemisphere. ”