Charles Anderson Dana (1819–1897)

UTTER no whisper of thy human speech,

But in celestial silence let us tell

Of the great waves of God that through us swell,

Revealing what no tongue could ever teach;

Break not the omnipotent calm, even by a prayer,

Filled with Infinite, seek no lesser boon:

But with these pines, and with the all-loving moon,

Asking naught, yield thee to the Only Fair;

So shall these moments so divine and rare,

These passing moments of the soul’s high noon,

Be of thy day the first pale blush of morn;

Clad in white raiment of God’s newly born,

Thyself shalt see when the great world is made

That flows forever from a Love unstayed.