THOMAS MOORE
Painting
Irish Poet
Painting
Irish Poet
Attributions
Enamel on Copper Painting by Thomas Lawrence, 19th century
Source
Dates and Places of Birth and Death
BORN: May 28, 1779 Dublin, Ireland
DIED: Feb. 25, 1852 Sloperton Cottage, Bromham, Wiltshire, England
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THE BIRD LET LOOSE.
THE bird let loose in eastern skies,
When hastening fondly home,
Ne'er stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam ;
But high she shoots through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.
So grant me, God, from every care
And stain of passion free,
Aloft, through Virtue's purer air,
To hold my course to thee !
No sin to cloud, no lure to stay
My soul, as home she springs ;
Thy sunshine on her joyful way,
Thy freedom in her wings !
THOMAS MOORE.
THOU ART, O GOD
"The day is thine, the night also is thine : thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth : thou hast made summer and winter." -PSALM LXXIV. 16, 17.
THOU art, O God, the life and light
Of all this wondrous world we see ;
Its glow by day, its smile by night,
Are but reflections caught from thee.
Where'er we turn thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine !
When day, with farewell beam, delays
Among the opening clouds of even,
And we can almost think we gaze
Through golden vistas into heaven,
Those hues that make the sun's decline
So soft, so radiant, Lord ! are thine.
When night, with wings of starry gloom,
O'ershadows all the earth and skies,
Like some dark, beauteous bird, whose plume
Is sparkling with unnumbered eyes,
That sacred gloom, those fires divine,
So grand, so countless, Lord ! are thine.
When youthful spring around us breathes,
Thy Spirit warms her fragrant sight ;
And every flower the summer wreathes
Is born beneath that kindling eye.
Where'er we turn, thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine !
THOMAS MOORE
