Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

The Hour of Peaceful Rest

By William Bingham Tappan (1794–1849)

THERE is an hour of peaceful rest

To mourning wanderers given;

There is a joy for souls distrest,

A balm for every wounded breast,

’Tis found alone in heaven.

There is a soft, a downy bed,

Far from these shades of even—

A couch for weary mortals spread,

Where they may rest the aching head,

And find repose, in heaven.

There is a home for weary souls

By sin and sorrow driven;

When tossed on life’s tempestuous shoals,

Where storms arise, and ocean rolls,

And all is drear but heaven.

There faith lifts up her cheerful eye,

To brighter prospects given;

And views the tempest passing by,

The evening shadows quickly fly,

And all serene in heaven.

There fragrant flowers immortal bloom,

And joys supreme are given;

There rays divine disperse the gloom:

Beyond the confines of the tomb

Appears the dawn of heaven.

Originally contributed to the Franklin Gazette, Philadelphia. 1818.