The Palace Walls

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Earth, with its dark and dreadful ills

Author: Alice Cary
Published in 21 hymnals

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Audio files: MIDI

Representative Text

1. Earth, with all its dark and dreadful ills,
Recedes and fades away;
Lift up your heads, ye heavenly hills,
Ye gates of death, give way!

2. My soul is full of whispered song;
My blindness is my sight;
The shadows that I feared so long
Are all alive with light.

3. The while my pulses faintly beat,
My faith doth so abound;
I feel grow firm beneath my feet
The green immortal ground.

4. That faith to me a courage gives,
Low as the grave to go;
I know that my Redeemer lives—
That I shall live, I know.

5. The palace walls I almost see
Where dwells my Lord and king;
O grave! where is thy victory?
O death! where is thy sting?

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Author: Alice Cary

Alice Cary (1820-1871) was born and raised in Mount Healthy in Hamilton County, Ohio. Her family had come from Lyme, New Hampshire when her grandfather was given land in return for his service in the Continental Army. She had been nationally recognized as an interpreter of pioneer traditions. Her short story collections depict Mount Healthy as it was transformed from an isolated rural village to a Cincinnati suburb. She and her sister Phoebe wrote for local religious periodicals before Alice moved to New York City. John Greenleaf Whitier praised Alice's stories as "simple, natural, truthful [with] a keen sense of humor and pathos of the comedy and tragedy of life in the country." Her hymn "Along the mountain track of life" was published i… Go to person page >

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Text Information

Text Information

First Line:	Earth, with its dark and dreadful ills
Title:	The Palace Walls
Author:	Alice Cary
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Language:	English
Refrain First Line:	The palace walls I almost see
Copyright:	Public Domain