Alma Mater 1838

Dædallan Earth! Thou with the crown of flowers,

And robe of ocean blue, and zone of green

Whose garland is of many-coloured clouds,

Whose treasures are the silent monitors

That awaken joy, and hope, and holy tears—

O Earth! o’erspread with laughing rivulets,

And kingly trees, and prayer-impelling hills,

Why art thou beautiful? Alas! alas!

Sorrow, and sin, and death are in the world;

And semblances unreal, and high hopes,

For ever springing, and for ever crushed!

Our strength is like the Danite’s;¹ but, like his,

It hath no eyes to guide it; and our days

Are but a yearning and a mystery.

So we go forth upon the road of life

With a half soul, and ever strive to find

The counterpart, but die and find it not!

Oh, cruel mother! Why this jubilee,

This song of birds, and sunshine, and sweet flowers,

When we, thy children, wail, and sin, and die?

Great essence of all good! —unseen, unheard,

Yet heard, and felt, and witnessed everywhere;

Dayspring of light, and centrefire of warmth!

Great mind! that radiates through all space,

Flowing, and flowing, but unfailing still:

Great law! by which all happiness is linked

With virtue, and all misery with vice;

Great son of glory, into which our souls,

Sooner or later, all shall flow at last—

Uphold me! Strengthen in me those desires,

Those blind mysterious instincts that bespeak

The caged and struggling Deity within!

So shall my soul press onward from the eclipse

Of time and death, and, like a summer sun

Serene, enlarged, undimmed by cloud or mist,

That sets on us to rise on other lands—

Unfaltering, yet full of thankfulness,

Look for a last time on the long-loved haunts,

And so go down in steadfast majesty!

“Korah”

Quebec, 21 July 1838