# Scenes and Hymns of Life, with Other Religious Poems

This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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SCENES AND HYMNS OF LIFE.
SCENES AND HYMNS OF LIFE,
WITH OTHER
RELIGIOUS POEMS.
BY
FELICIA HEMANS.
"How beautiful this dome of sky, And the vast hills, in fluctuation fix'd At thy command, how awful! Shall the soul, Human and rational, report of Thee Even less than these?" Wordsworth.
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH; AND T. CADELL, LONDON. MDCCCXXXIV.
TO
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Esq.
IN TOKEN OF DEEP RESPECT
FOR HIS CHARACTER, AND FERVENT GRATITUDE
FOR MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL BENEFIT
DERIVED FORM REVERENTIAL COMMUNION
WITH THE SPIRIT OF HIS POETRY,
THIS VOLUME
IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED BY
FELICIA HEMANS.
PREFACE.
I trust I shall not be accused of presumption for the endeavour which I have here made to enlarge, in some degree, the sphere of Religious Poetry, by associating with its themes more of the emotions, the affections, and even the purer imaginative enjoyments of daily life, than may have been hitherto admitted within the hallowed circle.
It has been my wish to portray the religious spirit, not alone in its meditative joys and solitary aspirations, (the poetic embodying of which seems to require from the reader a state of mind already separated and exalted,) but likewise in those active influences upon human life, so often called into victorious energy by trial and conflict, though too often also, like the upward-striving flame of a mountain watch-fire, borne down by tempest showers, or swayed by the current of opposing winds.
I have sought to represent that spirit as penetrating the gloom of the prison and the death-bed, bearing "healing on its wings" to the agony of parting love—strengthening the heart of the wayfarer for "perils in the wilderness"—gladdening the domestic walk through field and woodland—and springing to life in the soul of childhood, along with its earliest rejoicing perceptions of natural beauty.
Circumstances not altogether under my own control have, for the present, interfered to prevent the fuller developement of a plan which I yet hope more worthily to mature, and I lay this little volume before the public with that deep sense of deficiency which cannot be more impressively taught to human powers, than by their reverential application to things divine. F. H.
Contents.
Scenes and Hymns of Life. :
| | Page |
| The English Martyrs | 1 |
| Flowers and Music in a Room of Sickness | 19 |
| Cathedral Hymn | 33 |
| Wood Walk and Hymn | 41 |
| Prayer of the Lonely Student | 52 |
| The Traveller's Evening Song | 59 |
| Burial of an Emigrant's Child in the Forests | 63 |
| Easter-Day in a Mountain Church-Yard | 74 |
| The Child Reading the Bible | 82 |
| A Poet's Dying Hymn | 88 |
| The Funeral Day of Sir Walter Scott | 95 |
| The Prayer in the Wilderness | 103 |
| Prisoners' Evening Service | 107 |
| Hymn of the Vaudois Mountaineers in Times of Persecution | 117 |
| The Indian's Revenge | 121 |
| Prayer at Sea after Victory | 134 |
| Evening Song of the Weary | 138 ​ |
| | Page |
| The Day of Flowers | 140 |
| Hymn of the Traveller's Household on his Return | 151 |
| A Prayer of Affection | 155 |
| The Painter's Last Work | 157 |
| Mother's Litany by the Sick-Bed of a Child | 165 |
| Night Hymn at Sea | 167 |
Miscellaneous Poems.
| Female Characters of Scripture—a Series of Sonnets— | |
| I. Invocation | 170 |
| II. Invocation Continued | 171 |
| III. The Song of Miriam | 172 |
| IV. Ruth | 173 |
| V. The Vigil of Rizpah | 174 |
| VI. The Reply of the Shunamite Woman | 175 |
| VII. The Annunciation | 176 |
| VIII. The Song of the Virgin | 177 |
| IX. The Penitent Anointing Christ's Feet | 178 |
| X. Mary at the Feet of Christ | 179 |
| XI. The Sisters of Bethany after the Death of Lazarus | 180 |
| XII. The Memorial of Mary | 181 |
| XIII. The Women of Jerusalem at the Cross | 182 |
| XIV. Mary Magdalene at the Sepulchre | 183 |
| XV. Mary Magdalene Bearing Tidings of the Resurrection | 184 |
| | Page |
| The Two Monuments | 185 |
| The Memory of the Dead | 190 |
| Angel Visits | 193 |
| A Penitent's Return | 197 |
| A Thought of Paradise | 201 |
| Let us Depart | 205 |
| On a Picture of Christ Bearing the Cross | 209 |
| Communings with Thought | 211 |
| Sonnets, Devotional and Memorial— | |
| I. The Sacred Harp | 215 |
| II. To a Family Bible | 216 |
| III. Repose of a Holy Family | 217 |
| IV. Picture of the Infant Christ with Flowers | 218 |
| V. On a Remembered Picture of Christ | 219 |
| VI. The Children whom Jesus blest | 220 |
| VII. Mountain Sanctuaries | 221 |
| VIII. The Lilies of the Field | 222 |
| IX. The Birds of the Air | 223 |
| X. The Raising of the Widow's Son | 224 |
| XI. The Olive Tree | 225 |
| XII. The Darkness of the Crucifixion | 226 |
| XIII. Places of Worship | 227 |
| XIV. Old Church in an English Park | 228 |
| XV. A Church in North Wales | 229 |
| XVI. Louise Schepler | 230 |
| XVII. To the Same | 231 |
| Lines to a Butterfly Resting on a Skull | 232 |
| | Page |
| The Palmer | 234 |
| The Water-Lily | 237 |
| Thought from an Italian Poet | 240 |
| Elysium | 241 |