It Is a Beauteous Evening
Poems, in Two Volumes, 1802
It is a beauteous Evening, calm and free;The holy time is quiet as a NunBreathless with adoration; the broad sunIs sinking down in its tranquillity;The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea:Listen! the mighty Being is awake,And doth with his eternal motion makeA sound like thunder—everlastingly.Dear Child! dear Girl! that walkest with me here,If thou appear'st untouched by solemn thought,Thy nature is not therefore less divine:Thou liest "in Abraham's bosom" all the year;And worshipp'st at the Temple's inner shrine,God being with thee when we know it not.