Lyrics

I send the joys of earth away; 

Away, ye tempters of the mind, 

False as the smooth deceitful sea, 

and empty as the whistling wind. 

Your streams were floating me along, 

Down to a gulf of black despair, 

and while I listened to your song, 

your streams had e’en convey’d me there. 

Lord, I adore thy matchless grace,

Which warn’d me of that dark abyss; 

Which drew me from those treach’rous seas, 

And bid me seek superior bliss.

Now to the shining realms above, 

I stretch my hands and glance mine eyes:

O for the pinions of a dove, 

To bear me to the upper skies!