Contents
-BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD
Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Critical and Biographical Essay by Alfred H. Miles
John Stuart Blackie (18091895)
JOHN STUART BLACKIE is represented in another volume of the present Anthology by a selection of verse which was largely his own choice; but his “Songs of Religion and Life” (1876) give him claims to a place in any volume devoted to the sacred poetry of his time, hence two poems from that work are quoted here. Perhaps no better representation could be given of his fine manly religious spirit within the space than that afforded by the following lines entitled “The Laws of Nature” and the “Benedicite,” given here.
The fool hath in his heart declared,—by lawsSince time began,Blind, and without intelligential cause,Or reasoned plan,All things are ruled. I from this lore dissent,With sorrowful shameThat reasoning men such witless wit should ventIn reason’s name.O Thou that o’er this lovely world hast spreadThy jocund light,Weaving with flowers beneath, and stars o’erheadThis tissue brightOf living powers, clear Thou my sense, that IMay ever findIn all the marshalled pomp of earth and skyThe marshalling mind!Laws are not powers; nor can the well-timed coursesOf earths and moonsRing to the stroke of blind unthinking forcesTheir jarless tunes.Wiser were they who in the flaming vaultThe circling sunBeheld, and in his ray, with splendid fault,Worshipped the oneEye of the universe that seeth all,And shapeth sightIn man and moth through curious visual ballWith fine delight.O blessed beam, on whose refreshful mightProfusely shedSix times ten years, with ever young delight,Mine eye hath fed,Still let me love thee, and with wonder new,By flood and field,Worship the fair, and consecrate the trueBy Thee revealed!And loving thee, beyond thee love that firstFather of LightsFrom whom the ray vivific marvellous burst,Might of all mights,Whose thought is order, and whose will is law.That man is wiseWho worships God wide-eyed, with cheerful aweAnd chaste surprise.
Since the publication of the volume already referred to, the poet has passed away from amongst us, and the place that knew his characteristic face and figure knows them now no more. He died at Edinburgh on the 2nd of March, 1895.