Subject: Lyr Add: Longfellow's 'Sermon of St. Francis'
From:
Haruo
Date: 31 Oct 06 - 02:29 PM
I just posted this on the Hymn Texts board at the Hymn Society. I would have posted it here in the "Blessing of the Animals" thread were it not for a desire to avoid labeling it as BS.
Certainly not a new text. Has anyone used it as a hymn? A cento might go well at a Blessing of the Beasts service; tune? (It's LM.)
THE SERMON OF ST. FRANCIS
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
My source at HWLongfellow.org (Maine Historical Society)
Up soared the lark into the air,
A shaft of song, a wing'd prayer,
As if a soul released from pain
Were flying back to heaven again.
St. Francis heard: it was to him
An emblem of the Seraphim;
The upward motion of the fire,
The light, the heat, the heart's desire.
Around Assisi's convent gate
The birds, God's poor who cannot wait,
From moor and mere and darksome wood
Come flocking for their dole of food.
"O brother birds," St. Francis said,
"Ye come to me and ask for bread,
But not with bread alone to-day
Shall ye be fed and sent away.
"Ye shall be fed, ye happy birds,
With manna of celestial words;
Not mine, though mine they seem to be,
Not mine, though they be spoken through me.
"Oh, doubly are ye bound to praise
The great Creator in your lays;
He giveth you your plumes of down,
Your crimson hoods, your cloaks of brown.
"He giveth you your wings to fly
And breathe a purer air on high,
And careth for you everywhere,
Who for yourselves so little care!"
With flutter of swift wings and songs
Together rose the feathered throngs,
And singing scattered far apart;
Deep peace was in St. Francis' heart.
He knew not if the brotherhood
His homily had understood;
He only knew that to one ear
The meaning of his words was clear.
Note:The fifth stanza's fourth line is wrong (I can't believe Longfellow actually wrote it that way) and needs emendation to be sung aright:
Not mine, though they be spoken through me.
should it be
Not mine, though they be spake through me?
Not mine, though spoken they through me?
Not mine, though spoken be through me?
Yea, though they spoken be through me?
Though they be spoken here through me?
etc... Haruo
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sj
