The eighth stanza:
Tu lux refulge sensibus
mentisque somnum discute,
te nostra vox primum sonet,
et ora solvamus tibi.
O Light, shine on our senses,
and disperse the sleep of our soul,
let our voice sing first to you,
and let us free (ourselves) from the world for you.
As before, Christ is seen as the light of dawn; we are now identified with
the cock, raising our first song on waking to Christ.
Perhaps a simpler hymn than Splendor paternae gloriae, and not quite so
referential; but a fine hymn all the same, and exercising considerable
influence. Prudentius would write his own hymn at cock-crow, Ales diei
nuntius lucem propinquam praecinit, 'the winged messenger of day has sung
that the light is near'; an evening hymn from Advent would begin 'Conditor
alme siderum', 'Kind creator of the stars.'
Doctor Elasticus.
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