FROM NOVALIS.

Uplifted is the stone

And all mankind arisen!

We are thy very own,

We are no more in prison!

What bitterest grief can stay

Beside thy golden cup,

When earth and life give way

And with our Lord we sup!

To the marriage Death doth call,

The lamps are burning clear,

The virgins, ready all,

Have for their oil no fear.

Would that even now were ringing

The distance with thy throng!

And that the stars were singing

To us a human song!

Courage! for life is hasting

To endless life away;

The inward fire, unwasting,

Transfigures our dull clay!

See the stars melting, sinking

In life-wine golden-bright!

We, of the splendour drinking,

Shall grow to stars of light.

Lost, lost are all our losses!

Love is for ever free!

The full life heaves and tosses

Like an unbounded sea!

One live, eternal story!

One poem high and broad!

And sun of all our glory

The countenance of God!