CANON FOR ASCENSION DAY.

This is the crowning glory of the poet Joseph: he has here with a happy boldness entered into the lists with S. John Damascene, to whom, on this one occasion, he must be pronounced superior. I have preserved the alphabetic arrangement, and "Joseph's Ode" at the end. All the Catavasias are in Iambics.

A

B

ODE I.

ἀνέστης τριήμερος.

fter three days Thou didst rise
Visible to mortal eyes :

First the Eleven worshipped Thee,

Then the rest in Galilee :

Then a cloud in glory bore

Thee to Thine own native shore.

oldly David pour'd the strain:
GOD ascends to Heav'n again :
With the trumpet's pealing note
Alleluias round Him float;
As He now, by hard-won right,
Seeks the Fount of purest Light!

с rime on crime, and grief on grief,

Left the world without relief:

Now that aged, languid race,
GOD hath quickened by His grace:
As Thy going up we see,
Glory to Thy Glory be!

Catavasia.

θέιῳ καλυφθείς.

Ꭰ arkness and awe, when Sinai's top he trod,

Taught him of faltering tongue the Law of GOD :

The mist was scattered from his spirit's

eye,

He prais'd and hymn'd the Maker of

the sky,

When He That is and was and shall be,

passed by.

ODE III.

ἐπάρατε πυλάς.

"Exalt, exalt, the Heavenly Gates,
Ye chiefs of mighty name!
The Lord and King of all things waits,
Enrob'd in earthly frame."

F

G

So to the higher seats they cry,
The humbler legions of the sky.

or Adam's sake, by Serpent guile Distress'd, deceiv'd, o'erthrown, Thou left'st Thy native Home awhile,

Thou left'st the FATHER'S Throne:

Now he is deck'd afresh with grace, Thou seek'st once more the Heav'nly place.

lad festal keeps the earth to day,
Glad festal Heav'n is keeping:
The Ascension-pomp, in bright array,
Goes proudly sky-ward sweeping:
The LORD the mighty deed hath done,
And join'd the severed into one.

H

Catavasia.

ἔῤῥηξε γαστρός.

er fetters of the barren womb it rent, It crush'd the malice of the insolent, The cry of her-the prophetess, who brought

A contrite spirit, and a humble thought To Him, Who bids His Throne by earnest prayer be sought.

J

K

L

ODE IV.

Ἰησοῦς ὁ ζωοδότης.

ESUS, LORD of Life Eternal,

Taking those He lov'd the best,
Stood upon the Mount of Olives,

And His Own the last time blest:
Then, though He had never let it,
Sought again His FATHER's breast.

nit is now our flesh to Godhead,
Knit in everlasting bands:
Call the world to highest festal:

Floods and oceans, clap your hands:
Angels, raise the song of triumph!

Make response, ye distant lands!

oosing Death with all its terrors
Thou ascended'st up on high;
And to mortals, now Immortal,
Gavest immortality:

As Thine own Disciples saw Thee
Mounting victor to the sky!