Introduction
Born: November 7, 1804, Hudson, New York.
Died: November 9, 1851, Boston, Massachusetts.
Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Born: November 7, 1804, Hudson, New York.
Died: November 9, 1851, Boston, Massachusetts.
Buried: Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
William was the son of Harry Crosswell and Susan Sherman.
He graduated from Yale College in 1822. He studied law for a time, but eventually entered Harvard College to study theology. While in Hartford, Connecticut, 1827–28, he helped edit The Watchman, and contributed many of his poems to it.
He took Holy Orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1829. He then became rector of Christ Church, Boston (1829); St. Peter’s, Auburn, New York (1840); and Church of the Advent, Boston (1844).
His Memoir was written by his father, of New Haven, Connecticut.
His Poems, collected by his father, were edited, with a short memoir, by Dr. (later Bishop) Coxe, and published in Boston in 1860.
I cannot look above and see
Yon high-piled pillowy mass
Of evening clouds, so swimmingly
In gold and purple pass,
And think not, Lord, how Thou wast seen
On Israel’s desert way,
Before them, in Thy shadowy screen
Pavilioned all the day!
Or, of these robes of gorgeous hue
Which the Redeemer wore,
When ravished from His followers’ view,
Aloft His flight He bore;
When lifted, as on mighty wing
He curtained His ascent,
And wrapt in clouds, went triumphing
Above the firmament.
Is it a trail of that same pall
Of many colored dyes,
That high above, o’ermantling all,
Hangs midway down the skies;
Or borders of those sweeping folds
Which shall be all unfurled
About the Savior, when He holds
His judgment on the world?
For in like manner as He went,
My soul, hast thou forgot?
Shall be His terrible descent,
When man expecteth not!
Strength, Son of Man, against that hour,
Be to our spirits given,
When Thou shalt come again with power,
Upon the clouds of Heaven!
William Crosswell (1804–1851)