Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Hymns. VI. “O pleasant life!”Sarah Flower Adams (1805–1848)
(Paraphrased from the Spanish of Luis de Leon)
O
Whene’er the soul can win her way
From out the world’s dark strife;
And fly to depths fair-haunted
By spirits who have panted
To quit earth’s shadows for immortal day—
O pleasant life!
Nor care of courts, nor pride of birth,
Can ruffle thy smooth rest;
No scene of gilded riot
Disturbs thy star-lit quiet
Nor dims thy dream of heaven with mists of earth.
O happy breast!
What care hast thou that flatt’ring fame
Thy daily acts enroll?
No breath of hers it tasketh,
Thy life-long deed but asketh
One smile of Truth to light thy passing name—
O blessèd soul!