A Visit to Cowper’s Grave

Resting Wednesday is suspended for this tribute.

“A Visit to Cowper’s Grave” is a poem by an unknown author. This author began stanzas 2-6 with lines from William Cowper’s (1731-1800) hymns (“Far from the World,” “There Is a Fountain,” “When Darkness Long Has Veiled My Mind,” “O For a Closer Walk,” and “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”), and wove words from those hymns into these stanzas. A very interesting tribute.

1. I went alone. ’Twas summer time;
And, standing there before the shrine
Of that illustrious bard,
I read his own familiar name,
And thought of his extensive fame,
And felt devotion’s sacred flame,
Which we do well to guard.

2. “Far from the world, O Lord, I flee.”
How sweet the words appeared to me,
Like voices in a dream!
“The calm retreat, the silent shade”
Describe the spot where he was laid,
And where surviving friendships paid
Their tribute of esteem.

3. “There is a fountain.” As I stood
I thought I saw the crimson “flood,”
And some beneath the wave;
I thought the stream still rolled along,
And that I saw the ransomed throng,
And that I heard the “nobler song”
Of Jesus’ “power to save.”

4. “When darkness long has veiled my mind,”
And from these words I felt inclined
In sympathy to weep;
But “smiling day” has dawned at last,
And all his sorrows now are past;
No tempter now, no midnight blast,
To spoil the poet’s sleep.

5. “O for a closer”—even so,
For we who journey here below
Have lived too far from God.
Oh, for that holy life I said,
Which Enoch, Noah, Cowper led!
Oh, for that “purer light” to shed
Its brightness on “the road”!

6. “God moves in a mysterious way;”
But now the poet seemed to say,
No mysteries remain.
On earth I was a sufferer,
In Heav’n I am a conqueror;
“God is his own interpreter,”
And “he has made it plain.”