Full Lyrics
from the Afterglow (1867)
O sad sweet voice of the golden fall,
Thou bearest a message from heaven to all,
And the spirits of purity, health, and love,
Seem wafted with thee from a source above!
From the trees of my grove with a musical sway,
They swirl all the dank dead leaves away!
So sin and its sorrow in psalms depart,
'Mid the breathings of grace from a penitent's heart!
It seemed so cruel to strip and to strew
Those pomps in their saffron and scarlet hue,
But we know how their festering blight would cling,
And poison the blessing of summer and spring!
'Tis thus that our merciful Father destroys
The gloss and the glare of corrupting joys,
And tears from the heart all glittering things
Which would fetter to earth her aspiring wings!
