THEY SAY THERE IS A HOLLOW
by: Frances Ridley Havergal
(1836-1879)
From "The Thoughts
of God"
- HEY say
there is a hollow, safe and still,
- A point of coolness and repose
- Within the centre of a flame, where life might dwell
- Unharmed and unconsumed, as in a luminous shell,
- Which the bright walls of fire enclose
- In breachless splendour, barrier that no foes
- Could pass at will.
-
- There is a point of rest
- At the great centre of the cyclones force,
- A silence at its secret source;--
- A little child might slumber undistressed,
- Without the ruffle of one fairy curl,
- In that strange central calm amid the mighty whirl.
- So in the centre of these thoughts of God,
- Cyclones of power, consuming glory-fire,--
- As we fall oerawed
- Upon our faces, and are lifted higher
- By His great gentleness, and carried nigher
- Than unredeemèd angels, till we stand
- Even in the hollow of His hand,--
- Nay more! we lean upon His breast--
- There, there we find a point of perfect rest
- And glorious safety. There we see
- His thoughts to us-ward, thoughts of peace
- That stoop to tenderest love; that still increase
- With increase of our need; that never change,
- That never fail, or falter, or forget.
- O pity infinite!
- O royal mercy free!
- O gentle climax of the depth and height
- Of Gods most precious thoughts, most wonderful, most
strange!
- For I am poor and needy, yet
- The Lord Himself, Jehovah, thinketh upon me!
"They Say there is a Hollow"
is reprinted from The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse.
Ed. Nicholson & Lee. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1917. |
MORE POEMS BY FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL |
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