"Adoration"

Adoration

Spring up the East, O sun, 

O mist, forsake the sea! 

Shine, fir trees, every one, 

With sudden radiancy! 

Ye meadow-larks, sing clear, 

Across the rippled mere, 

And thro’ thy golden-noted song shake all thine ecstasy. 

Break, clouds, and whitely drift, 

Blow, shadbush, by the creek; 

Wild currant blossom, lift 

Thy soft and crimson cheek; 

In places dark and damp, 

Oh, light thy yellow lamp, 

Thou faithful dandelion, like a virgin pure and meek. 

 

Leap down thy pebbly bed, 

Thou wild, sweet, singing stream; 

Pale lily, rear thy head 

From adoration’s dream, 

And in thy perfect cup 

Burn all thy perfume up, 

And lift its incense unto God in ravishment supreme. 

The long, dark night is gone; 

Awake, O Earth, awake! 

Behold the splendid dawn 

Above the mountains break. 

The golds and crimsons run, 

Like heralds of the sun, 

To blow long bugle-rays of light to valley, sea, and lake. 

Yea, forest, hill, and sea, 

With rapturous passion ring; 

Then, oh, thou soul of me, 

Awake, arise, and sing! 

These notes the larks upraise 

Mount clear and high in praise; 

Then, oh, my soul, awake and soar to heaven’s gate and sing! 

Images of "Adoration" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land and Other Poems (1903) coming soon.


"Adoration" was set to music by Dominic Waedenschwiler in 1909 titled “Nature’s Morning Hymn."