WE see them not--we cannot hear
The music of their wing--
Yet know we that they sojourn near,
The Angels of the spring!
...
WAES-HAEL for knight and dame!
O merry be their dole!
Drink-hael! in Jesu's name
We fill the tawny bowl;
...
Robert Stephen Hawker (3 December 1803 – 15 August 1875), often known as Stephen Hawker, was an Anglican clergyman, poet, antiquarian of Cornwall, and reputed eccentric. He is best known as the writer of The Song of the Western Men, that includes the chorus line, And shall Trelawny die? There's 20,000 Cornish men shall know the reason why, which he published anonymously in 1825. His name became known after Charles Dickens acknowledged his authorship of "The Song of the Western Men" in the serial magazine Household Words.)
Are They Not All Ministering Spirits?
WE see them not--we cannot hear
The music of their wing--
Yet know we that they sojourn near,
The Angels of the spring!
They glide along this lovely ground
When the first violet grows;
Their graceful hands have just unbound
The zone of yonder rose.
I gather it for thy dear breast,
From stain and shadow free:
That which an Angel's touch hath blest
Is meet, my love, for thee!