Sursum Corda
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OH faint and feeble hearted, comfort ye! Nor shame those dead whose death was great indeed, Greater than life in death. It doth not need, Since we seek strength where healing may not be, Faith in fair fables of eternal rest, Nor seer's eyes to look beyond the grave. That they endured and dared for us shall save Our souls alive:—they met, our tenderest, Pain without plaint and death without dismay, Bore and beheld sorrows unspeakable, Yet shrank not from that double-edged distress, But, eyes set steadfastly where ends the way, They through all perils laughed and laboured well, Nor ceased from mercy on the merciless. |
Lying in State
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IF with his fathers he had fallen asleep, Far different would have been this drear lyke-wake. Lonely and lampless lies he, for whose sake Many might well a night-long vigil keep, And, though we have not time nor heart to weep, Yet fain would we some slight observance make, E'er sad to-morrow's earliest dawn shall break When he must lie yet darker and more deep. Therefore we've laid him 'neath a chestnut tree, That bears a myriad candles all alight, And faintly glimmering through the starry gloom— No dimmer than a holy vault might be— It sheds abroad upon the quiet night A gentle radiance and a faint perfume. |