145. Paradisi Gloria. Thomas William Parsons. Yale Book of American Verse

Thomas R. Lounsbury, ed. (1838–1915). Yale Book of American Verse. 1912.

Thomas William Parsons. 1819–1892

145. Paradisi Gloria

"O frate mio! ciascuna e cittadina D' una vera città"....
THERE is a city, builded by no hand,
And unapproachable by sea or shore,
And unassailable by any band
Of storming soldiery for evermore.

There we no longer shall divide our time	5
By acts or pleasures,—doing petty things
Of work or warfare, merchandise or rhyme;
But we shall sit beside the silver springs

That flow from God's own footstool, and behold
Sages and martyrs, and those blessèd few	10
Who loved us once and were beloved of old,
To dwell with them and walk with them anew,

In alternations of sublime repose,
Musical motion, the perpetual play
Of every faculty that Heaven bestows	15
Through the bright, busy, and eternal day.