Fugitive Verses

---

HYMN.

---

	MY God! would that, from earthly trammels free,
	My thoughts could win their upward way to thee,
	And there a while in lofty regions prove,
	The purifying glow of holy love!

	The solemn dome of night is o'er my head,
	Where countless stars in grand array are spread—
	Thy mighty host, that to our wondering eyes
	One maze of glory is; while sombre lies
	Beneath its vasty span the darkened face
	Of many a land, where many a motley race,
	With all their worldly care, in sleep are lapt.
	O, might my soul, in adoration rapt,
	Her high concentered thoughts still raise to thee,
	With steady power! Alas, this may not be!

---

	My thoughts are twilight birds, in seasons rare,
	That skim and rise, and flit in nether air;
	That wheel, and turn, and cross, and soar, and swoop,
	With seeming bootless speed, then feebly droop
	Their weary wings, which may no more sustain
	Such flight, and hie to murky haunts again.

	My God, who knowest the creature thou hast made,
	Pity my weakness, nor as sin be laid
	Upon my head, this feebleness of mind;
	And if sublimer thoughts I may not bind,
	As the abiding treasure of my heart—
	Inmates, who rarely from their cell depart,
	Vouchsafe such grace, that many a transient notion
	May oft within me kindle true devotion;
	And, moving as a meteor of the night,
	Be for a passing, glorious moment bright,—
	A moment, uttering in words of fire,
	"Thou art our Mighty Lord, our good and bounteous Sire."

About this text
Courtesy of University of California, Davis. General Library. Digital Intitiatives Program.; http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt567nb8xt&brand=oac4
Title: Fugitive Verses
By:  Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851, creator, British Women Romantic Poets Project
Date: 2001 (issued)
Contributing Institution: University of California, Davis. General Library. Digital Intitiatives Program.; http://digital.lib.ucdavis.edu/projects/bwrp
Copyright Note:

Any file or element contained herein may be displayed or transmitted across a network by anyone who has signed a license agreement with the U.C. Regents.

Copy and distribution of any element or file is prohibited without the express written permission of the U.C. Regents.

Regents of the University of California