Hark through the skies, &c.
This poem and others that succeed it, were written in such early years that I have distinguished them with apologetic dates. They made no part of the book when it was put to press, but as more matter was found necessary, I was obliged hastily to incorporate them with the Lays, as being the only early poems of the kind in my possession.
When the wounded bucanier.
This poem was addressed to a lady, a relative, on reading the anecdote to which it alludes, in the work of Audubon, on American birds. That author tells us that the plaintive note of the Zenaida dove, has actually been known to have such an effect upon a pirate, that he deserted his comrades, and in true penitence, abandoned forever his evil ways.
Still as our day our strength shall be.
I have spoken in this little Hymn, of our blessed Saviour, as suffering the pains of his cross, during the whole of his life. My meaning must be explained of course by the fact of his Divinity, to which the future was ever present. And in this I believe I am borne out by sound theologians. Dr. Dens, who, though a Romish divine, is generally Catholic on such points, and usually follows S. Thomas Aquinas, has this passage, which is exactly to the purpose. “Scriptores quidam spirituales, pia meditatione, observant, Christum Dominum toto vitæ suæ tempore sensisse, in anima dolores mortis, quos passus est in cruce; quia præcognoscens illos futuros, sibi eos vivacissime et perfecte omni tempore representabat et acceptabat tanquam præsentes.”
De Incarnatione, Quæst. xl.