God

by Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin

Source of witness transcribed: Vermont Telegraph (Brandon, Vermont)

Date of witness transcribed: 18 July 1838

Notes about this poem: "God" was printed in at least 209 newspapers during the nineteenth century. It can be found using ID 65475 in this table of most widely-reprinted poems.

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The following poem, translated from the Russian of Derzhavin, is scarcely equalled in grandeur and sublimity by any poem in any language. We take it from a work entitled 'Specimens of the Russian Poets,' translated by John Bowring.—Conn. Ob.

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• O thou eternal One! whose presence bright
• All space doth occupy, all motion guide;
• Unchanged thro’ time’s all devastating flight.
• Thou only God! There is no God beside!
• Being above all beings! Mighty One!
• Who none can comprehend and none explore;
• Who fill’st existence with Thyself alone:
• Embracing all,—supporting—ruling o’er—

• Being whom we call God—and know no more.

• In its sublime research, philosophy
• May measure out the ocean—deep—may count
• The sands of the sun’s ray—but, God! for Thee
• There is no weight nor measure:—none can mount
• Up to Thy mysteries; Reason’s brightest spark,
• Though kindled by Thy light, in vain would try
• To trace Thy counsels, infinite and dark:
• And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high;

• Even like past moments in eternity.

• Thou from primeval nothingness didst call
• First chaos, their existence;—Lord! on Thee
• Eternity had its foundation:—all
• Sprung forth from Thee:—of light, and joy, harmony,
• Sole origin:—all life, all beauty Thine.
• Thy word created all, and doth create;
• Thy splendor fills all space with rays divine.
• Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! Great

• Light-giving, life-sustaining Potentate!

• Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround:
• Upheld by Thee, by Thee inspired with breath!
• Thou the beginning with the end hast bound,
• And beautifully mingled life and death!
• As sparks mount upward from the fiery blaze,
• So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from Thee;
• And as the spangles in the sunny rays
• Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry

• Of heaven’s bright army glitters in Thy praise.

• A million torches lighted by Thy hand
• Wander unwearied through the blue abyss:
• They own Thy power, accomplish thy command;
• All gay with life, all eloquent with bliss.
• What shall we call them! Piles of crystal light—
• A glorious company of golden streams—
• Lamps of celestial ether burning bright—
• Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams?

• But Thou to these art as the noon to night.

• Yes! As a drop of water in the sea,
• All this magnificence in Thee is lost:
• What are ten thousand worlds compared to Thee?
• And what am I then? Heavens unnumbered host,
• Though multiplied by myriads, and arrayed
• In all the glory of sublimest thought,
• Is but an atom in the balance weighed
• Against thy greatness, is a cypher brought

• Against infinity! What am I then? Nought!

• Nought! But the effluence of thy light divine,
• Pervading worlds, hath reach’d my bosom too;
• Yes! in my spirit doth Thy spirit shine
• As shines the sun-beam in a drop of dew.
• Now but I live, and one hope’s pinions fly
• Eager towards thy presence; for in Thee
• I live, and breathe, and dwell; aspiring high.
• Even to the throne of Thy divinity

• I am, O God! and surely Thou must be!

• Thou art! directing, guiding all, Thou art!
• Direct my understanding then to Thee;
• Control my spirit, guide my wandering heart:
• Though but an atom ‘midst immensity,
• Still I am something, fashioned by Thy hand!
• I hold a middle rank ‘twixt heaven and earth,
• On the last verge of mortal being stand,
• Close to the realms where angels have their birth,

• Just on the boundaries of the spirit land!

• The chain of the being is complete in me;
• In me is matter’s last gradation lost,
• And the next step is spirit—Deity!
• I can command the lightening, and I am dust!
• A monarch, and a slave; a worm, a God!
• Whence came I here and how? so marvellously
• Constructed and conceived? unknown! this clod
• Lives surely through some energy;

• For from itself alone it could not be!

• Creator, yes! Thy wisdom and Thy word
• Created me! Thou source of life and good!
• Thou spirit of my spirit, and my Lord!
• Thy light, Thy love, in their bright plenitude,
• Filled me with an immortal soul to spring
• Over the abyss of death, and bade it wear
• The garments of eternal day, and wing
• Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere,

• Even to its source—to—Thee—it’s Author there.

• O thoughts ineffable! O visions blest!
• Though worthless our conceptions all of Thee,
• Yet shall Thy shadowed image fill our breast,
• And waft its homage to Thy Deity.
• God! thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar;
• Thus seek Thy presence—Being wise and good!
• Midst Thy vast works admire, obey, adore;
• And when the tongue is eloquent no more,
• The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude.