George Willis Cooke, comp. The Poets of Transcendentalism: An Anthology. 1903.
InspirationSamuel Johnson (18221882)
L
Love of God, unspent and free,
Flowing in the prophet’s word
And the people’s liberty!
That unstinted tide confined;
Thine is every time and place,
Fountain sweet of heart and mind!
Motion of the oldest hours,
Pledge through elemental wars
Of the coming spirit’s powers!
Stand in nobler man complete;
Prescient laws thine errands run,
Frame the shrine for Godhead meet.
Upward yearned in joy or awe,
Found the love that waited nigh,
Guidance of thy guardian law.
Down from mystic skies it burned;
Right obeyed and passion stilled
Its eternal gladness earned.
Pulsing in the hero’s blood,
Nerving simplest thought and deed,
Freshening time with truth and good,
Holy book and pilgrim track,
Hurling floods of tyrant wrong
From the sacred limits back,—
Love of God, unspent and free,
Flow still in the Prophet’s word
And the People’s liberty!