| William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909. | | | | From Greenland’s Icy Mountains | | By Reginald Heber (1783–1826) |
| | | FROM Greenland’s icy mountains, | |
| From India’s coral strand, | |
| Where Afric’s sunny fountains | |
| Roll down their golden sand; | |
| From many an ancient river, | 5 |
| From many a palmy plain, | |
| They call us to deliver | |
| Their land from error’s chain! | |
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| What though the spicy breezes | |
| Blow soft o’er Ceylon’s isle, | 10 |
| Though every prospect pleases, | |
| And only man is vile: | |
| In vain with lavish kindness | |
| The gifts of God are strown, | |
| The heathen, in his blindness, | 15 |
| Bows down to wood and stone! | |
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| Can we, whose souls are lighted | |
| With wisdom from on high, | |
| Can we to men benighted | |
| The lamp of life deny? | 20 |
| Salvation! oh, salvation! | |
| The joyful sound proclaim, | |
| Till each remotest nation | |
| Has learn’d Messiah’s name! | |
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| Waft, waft, ye winds, his story, | 25 |
| And you, ye waters, roll, | |
| Till like a sea of glory, | |
| It spreads from pole to pole; | |
| Till o’er our ransomed nature, | |
| The Lamb for sinners slain, | 30 |
| Redeemer, King, Creator, | |
| In bliss returns to reign! | | | | |
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