To solemnize the great mysterious day! Ye patriarchs, from whom the Savior draws Which lights redemption's theater! From thence Greater than that which by your festal songs, When, from creation pausing, God proclaimed Will soon accomplish! Haste then, angels, haste! Eloa ceased. All Heaven in silence heard, Caught the deep murmured sighs, which low were breathed, In fervent wishes for the expected hour Of man's salvation. There distinct arose The voice of Adam, who through ages wept His hapless fall. This was the altar seen By him in Patmos, the high-favored seer Of the new covenant: thence he heard the voice A form impalpable of luster clear As that fair thought which the creative mind Fresh from his Maker's hand, youthful he sprung. I, thy first habitant! Thy barren fields As in the dust I left, the Savior walks, Would lovelier meet mine eyes than thy bright plains, Thou long-lost Paradise!" Adam here paused. To whom the seraph: "I will speak thy wish To the Redeemer: should his will divine His lowliest humiliation to behold." Now had the angelic host all quitted heaven, Which by the neighboring stars, as each rolled by In silver tones "Queen of the scattered worlds Again selected for the theater Of God's high presence! Blest spectatress thou Thus sung the spheres; and through the concave vast Angelic voices echoed back the sounds. Gabriel exulting heard, and swift in flight Reached earth's dim surface. O'er her silent vales A narrow cleft which rent the forked height His resting-place. With reverence Gabriel viewed |