| Henry Charles Beeching, ed. (1859–1919). Lyra Sacra: A Book of Religious Verse. 1903. | | | | Longing | | By George MacDonald (1824–1905) |
| | | O ALL 1 wide places, far from feverous towns; | |
| Great shining seas; pine forests; mountains wild; | |
| Rock-bosomed shores; rough heaths, and sheep-cropt downs; | |
| Vast pallid clouds; blue spaces undefiled— | |
| Room! give me room! give loneliness and air— | 5 |
| Free things and plenteous in your regions fair. | |
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| White dove of David, flying overhead, | |
| Golden with sunlight on thy snowy wings, | |
| Outspeeding thee my longing thoughts are fled | |
| To find a home afar from men or things; | 10 |
| Where in His temple, earth o’erarched with sky, | |
| God’s heart to mine may speak, my heart reply. | |
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| O God of mountains, stars, and boundless spaces, | |
| O God of freedom and of joyous hearts, | |
| When Thy face looketh forth from all men’s faces, | 15 |
| There will be room enough in crowded marts! | |
| Brood Thou around me, and the noise is o’er, | |
| Thy universe my closet with shut door. | |
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| Heart, heart, awake! The love that loveth all | |
| Maketh a deeper calm than Horeb’s cave, | 20 |
| God in thee, can His children’s folly gall? | |
| Love may be hurt, but shall not love be brave?— | |
| Thy holy silence sinks in dews of balm; | |
| Thou art my solitude, my mountain-calm! | |
| | | Note 1. Shortened, with the author’s leave, from a poem in “Organ Songs.” [back] | | |
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