Poems

Chapter 8: WOULD WE DWELL ON THE MOUNTAIN HEIGHT?

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About This Book

A compact collection of short lyrics and occasional longer pieces that pair devotional reflection with sentimental and patriotic themes. Poems move between nature scenes, seascapes, and seasonal detail to explore faith, hope, duty, and the consolations of memory. Language tends toward clear, hymnlike phrasing and moral admonition, with moments of celebratory exhortation and public commemoration interspersed among intimate domestic and pastoral sketches.

WOULD WE DWELL ON THE MOUNTAIN
HEIGHT?

Would we dwell on the mountain height

Whence the world is lovely and bright.

Then we must be eager to climb,

Ready and willing to press

For the noble, the true, the sublime,

To comfort, to bless.

Would we stand like heroes of yore

When life's sternest conflicts are o'er,

Would we stand triumphant at last,

Or weep the chances we miss

As the tide of the battle sweeps past—

To conquer is bliss.

Would we see the foemen retreat,

The foemen we dreaded to meet,

Battalions of pain, of despair:—

On! it is never too late!

Let us strive for a heritage fair,

A royal estate.