To the end of the trail / Richard Hovey [electronic text]

HYMN FOR THE HOLY DAY OF ST. CATHERINE OF ALEXANDRIA

QUEEN upon earth! Ah, more, our queen in heaven! What may men bring for gifts before thy throne? What praise for thee, to whom God's praise is given? O ruler of ten cities! what wrought zone Of gold of earthly poesy, starred round With flaming rubicels of love that yearns, Is meet for thee whom God girds as a queen With glory of archangels and the sound Of sacred trumpets and the light that burns On all the altars of thy wide demesne? Shed thou thy grace on us,Whom the four angels Bare through the air To the marvellous tomb!

Turn thy fair face on us! Teach us evangels Newer and truer! Lighten the gloom, That our eyes may see clear! Though the darkness be drear! O Queen and Teacher, we besech thee, hear!

O thou wise Lady, whose illumined eyes Beheld not only Moses on the Mount, Saw not alone before thy vision rise The royal sage whose wisdom learned to count All world's-ways vanity that led him not To Him who holds all worlds within His palm, Nor the great Twain on whom Death worked no wrong! Thou hast trodden the Stagirite's straight ways of thought And walked with Plato on the heights of calm And learned the strange lore of the Sibyl's song. Each was God's voice with thee —Hebrew or Hellen —Light for thy sight To discover thy Lord. Now they rejoice with thee, Chosen to dwell in Aidenn, a maiden Crowned and adored.

And we too would draw near To salute and revere O wise and radiant and benign one, hear!

Not only unto thee that prince of yore, Whose psalms still girdle earth with chains of praise, Nor he who sang the song of him who bore God's utmost patiently, unlocked their lays; Nor even God's poet-mother held alone High discourse with thee. Homer also spread On thy soul's sea the singing of his sails. Thou hast heard devout Euripides' sweet moan And Pindar trumpeting with uplifted head And Sappho thrilling with the nightingales — Sunless but glorious Beacons unnumbered, Bright in the night With God's luminous breath, Star-souls victorious Though the dawn slumbered, Bringing with singing Forewords God saith. All a-stagger we tread In the ways where they led. Strengthen our steps, O victress garlanded!

Now night and twilight for thine eyes are ended In the diviner noonday of the place When God's white sunlight makes the city splendid With glory from the shining of His face; Yet are the stars not lightless in that flood Of radiance, brightening forth with steadier glow, Their angel forms the clearlier outlined there — The Powers and Principalities that stood Undaunted when Heaven warred with the great Foe, And the clear-sighted ones who made earth fair. Thou, whom they reverence (Thrones and dominions), Save from the grave Of unknowledge and night! Face us forever hence Dawnward, whose pinions Weary in dreary Doubt of the light! Be a lamp in our way, That our feet may not stray! Sainted and sweet, have rue on us, we pray!

O thou who sittest ever at her feet Whom God wrought of all creatures holiest That she might be as spotless raiment meet To clothe the Eternal Word with! Fair sky's-guest,

With whom the high arch-regents of the spheres Hold interchange of sweet Olympian words — Apollo and lute-hearted Israfel And clear-limbed Artemis, splendid with her spears, Uranian Aphrodite and her birds, Serene Athene, sword-eyed Uriel! Thou who didst seek on high Love such as breast shall Pour nevermore For a mortal man's mirth! Thou who from beacon eye, Flaming, celestial, Lightest our brightest Torches of earth! O refulgent and fair, With the stars in thy hair! Holy and blessed, hearken to our prayer!

Grant us thine aid that, as our footsteps wander Down the long years, still searching for the Sign, With no love-ruining pride our weak thoughts ponder The deep sweet undertones of the Thought divine, The mystery of the grasses of the field, And the green crown of sunset in the west, And the wind's ways that no man's feet have trod,

Till each new glory to the mind revealed Kindle new love beneath the yearning breast And the head's wisdom lead the heart to God — Till, in Heaven's unity, Loving and learning Meet and, complete, Are as one word, not twain, Weak importunity Yields to soul's spurning And, risen from prison, Love shakes off Time's chain. O royal and wise! Dædal-throned in the skies! O crowned of God! O rose of Paradise!

November, 1887