Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By ConfirmationWilliam Croswell
T
Noviciates all—who, tutor’d to revere
The mitre’s holy offices, drew near,
And, after sins renounced, and pledges vow’d,
Pale with emotion and religious fear,
In meek subjection, round the chancel, bow’d,
To hallow’d hands, that o’er them, one by one,
Fell, with a Prelate’s thrilling benison.
Thou who canst make the loadstone’s touch impart
An active virtue to the temper’d steel,
Oh let thy hand rest on them till they feel
A new-born impulse stirring in the heart,
And, swinging from surrounding objects, free,
Point, with a tremulous confidence to Thee!