Bright as the sun their crowns celestial shine,

Yet I behold them with undazzled eye!

Oh! that yon glittering canopy of light

Would burst asunder, that I might behold

Him whom so long, not seeing, I have loved!

It parted—lo! it opened—as I stood

With clasped hands stretched towards heav’n, my eager gaze

Fixed on the widening glory!

Suddenly,

As if the burden of the flesh no more