Practising The Anthem

A summer wind blows through the open porch,

And, ‘neath the rustling eaves,

A summer light of moonrise, calm and pale,

Shines through a vale of leaves.

The soft gusts bring a scent of summer flowers,

Fresh with the falling dew,

And round the doorway, glimmering white as snow,

The tender petals strew.

Clear through the silence, from a reedy pool

The curlew’s whistle thrills;

A lonely mopoke sorrowfully cries

From the far-folding hills.

O lovely night, and yet so sad and strange!

My fingers touch the key;

And down the empty church my Christmas song

Goes ringing, glad and free.

Each sweet note knocks at dreaming memory’s door,

And memory wakes in pain;

The spectral faces she had turn’d away

Come crowding in again.

The air seems full of music all around-

I know not what I hear,

The multitudinous echoes of the past,

Or these few voices near.

Ah me! the dim aisle vaguely widens out,

I see me stand therein;

A glory of grey sculpture takes the light

A winter morn brings in.

No more I smell the fragrant jessamine flowers

That flake a moonlit floor;

The rustling night-breeze and the open porch

I hear and see no more.

Great solemn windows, down a long, long nave

Their shadow’d rainbows fling;

Dark Purbeck shafts, with hoary capitals,

In carven archways spring.

And overhead the throbbing organ waves

Roll in one mighty sea,

Bearing the song the herald angels sang

Of Christ’s nativity.

Dear hands touch mine beneath the open book,

Sweet eyes look in my face,-

They smile, they melt in darkness; I am snatch’d

From my familiar place.

The summer night-wind blows upon my tears;

Its flowery scent is pain.

O cold, white day! O noble minster-when

May I come back again!

To hear the angels’ anthem shake the air,

Where never discord jars,-

The Christmas carols in the windy street,

Under the frosty stars;

The dream-like falling from the still, grey skies,

With falling flakes of snow,

Of mellow chimes from old cathedral bells,

Solemn and sweet and slow.

To hear loved footsteps beating time with mine

Along the churchyard path,-

To see that ring of faces once again

Drawn round the blazing hearth.

When may I come? O Lord, when may I go?

Nay, I must wait Thy will.

Give patience, Lord, and in Thine own best way

My hopes and prayers fulfil.

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Poems in English 

• For Birds by Nithin Purple by Poetry In English
• Flying Wishes by Osman cisse Hanif by Poetry In English
• Femme Fatale by Nijole Miliauskaite by Poetry In English
• Eye By Eye by Nijole Miliauskaite by Poetry In English
• Evening by Olivia Lewis by Poetry In English
• E-waste by Nisha Gopalakrishnan by Poetry In English
• Dreamtime by Olivia Lewis by Poetry In English
• Death Divine by Nithin Purple by Poetry In English
• Dead Orchard by Nijole Miliauskaite by Poetry In English
• CloSe To My Heart by Nishant Deherkar by Poetry In English
• Children’s Taste by Nijole Miliauskaite by Poetry In English
• Cambodian Flower by Norma Martiri by Poetry In English
• Burnt in contemplation by Nishant Deherkar by Poetry In English
• The Bonifratrian Hospital by Nijole Miliauskaite by Poetry In English
• Blank by Nizar Sartawi by Poetry In English
• Between Two Moments by Nizar Sartawi by Poetry In English
• Between going and staying the day wavers by Octavio Paz by Poetry In English
• Basic Overhaul by Nijole Miliauskaite by Poetry In English
• Aquamarine Butterfly by Nina Gabriel by Poetry In English
• An Elegy On The Glory Of Her Sex, Mrs Mary Blaize by Oliver Goldsmith by Poetry In English

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Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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