Full Lyrics
Although I enter not,
Yet round about the spot
Ofttimes I hover;
And near the sacred gate,
With longing eyes I wait,
Expectant of her.
The minster bell tolls out
Above the city’s rout,
And noise and humming;
They’ve hush’d the minster bell:
The organ ’gins to swell;
She’s coming, she’s coming!
My lady comes at last,
Timid and stepping fast
And hastening thither,
With modest eyes downcast;
She comes— she’s here, she’s past!
May heaven go with her!
Kneel undisturb’d, fair saint!
Pour out your praise or plaint
Meekly and duly;
I will not enter there,
To sully your pure prayer
With thoughts unruly.
But suffer me to pace
Round the forbidden place,
Lingering a minute,
Like outcast souls, who wait,
And see, through heaven’s gate,
Angels within it.
