Song to David

Immortal honor, endless fame,

Attend the Almighty Father's name;
The Saviour Son be glorified,

Who for lost man's redemption died;

And equal adoration be,

Eternal Paraclete, to thee.

3533

Translated from the Latin of St. Gregory the Great(?) by

John Dryden [1631-1700]

SONG TO DAVID

SUBLIME-invention ever young,
Of vast conception, towering tongue
To God the eternal theme;
Notes from yon exaltations caught,
Unrivaled royalty of thought

O'er meaner strains supreme.

His muse, bright angel of his verse,
Gives balm for all the thorns that pierce,
For all the pangs that rage;

Blest light still gaining on the gloom,
The more than Michal of his bloom,

The Abishag of his age.

He sang of God-the mighty source
Of all things-the stupendous force
On which all strength depends;
From whose right arm, beneath whose eyes,
All period, power, and enterprise

Commences, reigns, and ends.

Tell them, I AM, Jehovah said
To Moses; while earth heard in dread,
And, smitten to the heart,

At once above, beneath, around,

All Nature, without voice or sound,

Replied, O LORD, THOU ART.

The world, the clustering spheres, He made; The glorious light, the soothing shade,

Dale, champaign, grove, and hill;

The multitudinous abyss,

Where Secrecy remains in bliss,

And Wisdom hides her skill.

The pillars of the Lord are seven,
Which stand from earth to topmost heaven;
His Wisdom drew the plan;

His Word accomplished the design,
From brightest gem to deepest mine;

From Christ enthroned, to Man.

For Adoration all the ranks

Of Angels yield eternal thanks,

And David in the midst;

With God's good poor, which, last and least
In man's esteem, Thou to Thy feast,
O blessed Bridegroom, bidd'st!

For Adoration, David's Psalms
Lift up the heart to deeds of alms;

And he, who kneels and chants,
Prevails his passions to control,
Finds meat and medicine to the soul,
Which for translation pants.

For Adoration, in the dome

Of Christ, the sparrows find a home,
And on His olives perch:

The swallow also dwells with thee,
O man of God's humility,

Within his Saviour's church.

Sweet is the dew that falls betimes,
And drops upon the leafy limes;

Sweet, Hermon's fragrant air:

Sweet is the lily's silver bell,
And sweet the wakeful tapers' smell
That watch for early prayer.

3535

Song to David

Sweet the young nurse, with love intense,
Which smiles o'er sleeping innocence;

Sweet, when the lost arrive:

Sweet the musician's ardor beats,

While his vague mind's in quest of sweets,
The choicest flowers to hive.

Strong is the horse upon his speed;
Strong in pursuit the rapid glede,

Which makes at once his game:
Strong the tall ostrich on the ground;
Strong through the turbulent profound
Shoots Xiphias to his aim.

Strong is the lion-like a coal
His eyeball,—like a bastion's mole
His chest against the foes:
Strong the gier-eagle on his sail;
Strong against tide the enormous whale
Emerges as he goes.

But stronger still, in earth and air,
And in the sea, the man of prayer,

And far beneath the tide:

And in the seat to fate assigned,

Where ask is have, where seek is find,
Where knock is open wide.

Precious the penitential tear;
And precious is the sigh sincere,

Acceptable to God:

And precious are the winning flowers,
In gladsome Israel's feast of bowers
Bound on the hallowed sod.

Glorious the sun in mid career;

Glorious the assembled fires appear;

Glorious the comet's train:

Glorious the trumpet and alarm;

Glorious the Almighty's stretched-out arm;

Glorious the enraptured main;

Glorious the northern lights astream;

Glorious the song, when God's the theme;
Glorious the thunder's roar:
Glorious Hosanna from the den;
Glorious the catholic Amen;
Glorious the martyr's gore:

Glorious-more glorious-is the crown
Of Him that brought salvation down,
By meekness called thy Son:

Thou that stupendous truth believed;-
And now the matchless deed's achieved,

Determined, dared, and done!

Christopher Smart [1722-1771]

NOX NOCTI INDICAT SCIENTIAM

WHEN I survey the bright

Celestial sphere;

So rich with jewels hung, that night
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear:

My soul her wings doth spread
And heavenward flies,

The Almighty's mysteries to read
In the large volumes of the skies.

For the bright firmament

Shoots forth no flame

So silent, but is eloquent

In speaking the Creator's name.

No unregarded star

Contracts its light

Into so small a character,

Removed far from our human sight,

But if we steadfast look

We shall discern

In it, as in some holy book,

How man may heavenly knowledge learn.

"The Spacious Firmament on High" 3537

It tells the conqueror

That far-stretched power,

Which his proud dangers traffic for,
Is but the triumph of an hour;

That from the farthest North,

Some nation may,

Yet undiscovered, issue forth,

And o'er his new-got conquest sway:

Some nation yet shut in

With hills of ice

May be let out to scourge his sin,
Till they shall equal him in vice.

And then they likewise shall
Their ruin have;

For as yourselves your empires fall,
And every kingdom hath a grave.

Thus those celestial fires,

Though seeming mute,

The fallacy of our desires

And all the pride of life confute:

For they have watched since first
The world had birth;

And found sin in itself accurst,

And nothing permanent on earth.

William Habington [1605-1654]

"THE SPACIOUS FIRMAMENT ON HIGH"

From "The Spectator," No. 465

THE spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame,

Their great Original proclaim.

The unwearied Sun, from day to day,

Does his Creator's power display;