First Spirit
PALACE roof of cloudless nights!Paradise of golden lights!Deep, immeasurable, vast,Which art now and which wert thenOf the present and the past,Of the eternal where and when,Presence-chamber, temple, home,Ever canopying domeOf acts and ages yet to come!
Glorious shapes have life in thee,Earth, and all earth’s company;Living globes which ever throngThy deep chasms and wildernesses;And green worlds that glide along;And swift stars with flashing tresses;And icy moons most cold and bright,And mighty suns beyond the night,Atoms of intensest light.
Even thy name is as a God,Heaven! for thou art the abodeOf that power which is the glassWherein man his nature sees.Generations as they passWorship thee with bended knees.Their unremaining gods and theyLike a river roll away:Thou remainest such alway.