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Home  »  Specimens of American Poetry  »  Peter Oliver (1713–1791)

Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.

By Lines

Peter Oliver (1713–1791)

CEASE then the rapid tear, nor vainly urge

The mournful gloom, erect the pensive eye

To where the virtuous man is rank’d above;

See there the cloudless soul, unfetter’d, free

From every terrene clog that here so late

His flight retarded to the throne of God.

See his exulting spirit, mounted high

On wings of love celestial, basking full

In the calm sunshine of the Deity.

There, every tear wiped from his eyes, he views

The rushing glories of the world of light,

He drinks the stream of pleasure, pure, unmix’d,

That flows incessant from the sacred fount:

His ears delighted with angelic harps,

He tunes his own, and joins the sacred choir:

The odors from the golden tree of life,

Which fill all heaven with fragrance, he inhales,

And feels, enraptured, all those joys that flow

From converse with the Godhead, face to face.