Maria Frances Cecilia Cowper

Bert Alward

The brawling voices babble as before
Though one is hushed : the noblest and the best
...

The angry sun slow sinking in the west,
Casts one last lingering glance upon the earth
Which he has parched and withered all the day ;
...

HAPPY soul, whoe'er thou be,
Who dwell'st with Christ in unity;
Happiest thou of human race,
Who know'st the sweets of sov'reign grace.
...

LET Faith and holy Hope be there,
And all my soul for God prepare:
Let ev'ry Christian grace attend,
To bear me to my God and Friend;
...

How shall we honour the unburied dead ?
Shall we go forth with loud acclaim, and rake
...

SAY, wretched wanderer, whom the world insnares,
Do all thy joys compensate half thy cares?
Where is the balm to ease the aching breast,
...

I KNOW not, in this dark and fateful hour,
What England is to others, but to me
She is a noble heritage, a sea
...

VAIN are those joys that erring man provides,
Vain the pursuit of sublunary things!
Wisdom the sandy edifice derides,
...

AH hapless maid! whose virtues, once thy own,
The lustre of thy brilliants far outshone;
Couldst thou awhile thy waken'd self attend,
...

Yea peoples of the earth, put not your trust
In princes, nor in any child of man
Set over you in lordship, their desires
...

E'EN to the height of God's eternal throne,
Where my affections, my desires, are gone.
No view of this frail, fleeting scene of things,
...

FREELY I to God resign
Whatever is accounted mine;
Seeking only to be blest
In his love's eternal rest.
...

SAY, would the teeming earth its treasures yield,
Or grateful plenty crown the smiling field,
If bright'ning suns unceasing warm'd the plain,
...

COME, Holy Spirit, love divine,
Thy cleansing power impart;
Each erring thought and wish refine,
That wanders near my heart.
...

I HAVE seen thee again, my beloved,
Thou art come in the pride of thy youth,
With thy beauty a garment about thee,
In thy mantle of truth :
...

FAREWELL thou restless world, whose unsound joy,
False hopes, and vain pursuits, man's life destroy;
Poison in golden cups thou gav'st to me,
...

While the whole world is filled with noise of battle,
And cries from many a devastated land,
While day by day our bravest and our dearest
...

In God's good time this agony shall cease
And gentle peace return. But stark and numb
Some lie beneath Caucasian snows, and some
...

BE hush'd my tongue, nor murmur or complain;
With pious awe the struggling tear restrain.
Dark is my path and intricate my way,
...

It cannot be that having seen the day
We should endure the tyranny of the night ;
For if we have not sinned against the light,
...