Abraham Coles

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“Words are freeborn, and not the vassals of the gruff tryants of prose to do their bidding only. They have the same right to dance and sing as the dewdrops have to sparkle and the stars to shine.”

“Taking our stand on the immovable rock of Christ’s character we risk nothing in saying that the wine of miracle answered to the wine of nature, and was not intoxicating. No counter proof can equal the force of that drawn from His attributes. It is an indecency and a calumny to impute to Christ conduct which requires apology.”

“Poetry is unfallen speech. Paradise knew no other, for no other would suffice to answer the need of those ecstatic days of innocence.”

“Much of our ignorance is of ourselves. Our eyes are full of dust. Prejudice blinds us.”

“Let us not doubt that God has a father’s pity towards us, and that in the removal of that which is dearest to us He is still loving and kind. Death separates, but it also unites. It reunites whom it separates.”

“Within a bony, labyrinthean cave,Reached by the pulse of the aërial wave,This sibyl, sweet, and mystic sense is found,Muse, that presides o’er all the powers of sound.”

“Who has not seen that feeling born of flameCrimson the cheek at mention of a name?The rapturous touch of some divine surpriseFlash deep suffusion of celestial dyes:When hands clasped hands, and lips to lips were pressed,And the heart’s secret was at once confessed?”

“When Conscience wakens who can with her strive?Terrors and troubles from a sick soul drive?Naught so unpitying as the ire of sin,The inappeas’ble Nemesis within.”

“We hail the return of the day of thy birth,Fair Columbia! washed by the waves of two oceans—Where men from the farthest dominions of earthRear altars to Freedom, and pay their devotions;Where our fathers in fight, nobly strove for the Right,Struck down their fierce foemen or put them to flight;Through the long lapse of ages, that so there might beAn asylum for all in the Land of the Free.”

“’Twas not the fading charms of faceThat riveted Love’s golden chain;It was the high celestial graceOf goodness that doth never wane—Whose are the sweets that never pall,Delicious, pure, and crowning all.”

“True love is humble, thereby is it known;Girded for service, seeking not its own;Vaunts not itself, but speaks in self-dispraise.”

“To legislate each duty, were to countDrops of a stream that issue from one fount.God gives, since all effects are in their cause,For narrow prescripts universal laws.”

“The winds of winter wailing through the woods;The mighty laughter of the vernal floods.”

“The rain-drops’ showery dance and rhythmic beat,With tinkling of innumerable feet.”

“The power to bind and loose to Truth is given:The mouth that speaks it is the mouth of Heaven.The power, which in a sense belongs to none,Thus understood belongs to every one.”

“The grave, where sets the orb of being, setsTo rise, ascend, and culminate aboveEternity’s horizon evermore.”

“So many great nobles, things, administrations,So many high chieftains, so many brave nations,So many proud princes, and powers so splendid,In a moment, a twinkling, all utterly ended.”

“On eyes that watch as well as eyes that weepDescends the solemn mystery of sleep,Toiling and climbing to the very close,The weary Body, longing for repose,On the gained level of the day’s ascent,Halts for the night and pitches there its tent.”

“O most illustrious of the days of time!Day full of joy and benison to earthWhen Thou wast born, sweet Babe of Bethlehem!With dazzling pomp descending angels sungGood will and peace to men, to God due praise,Who on the errand of salvation sentThee, Son Beloved! of plural UnityEssential part, made flesh that mad’st all worlds.”