 | Carol and Cadence |  |
THE LIGHTS OF HEAVEN.
Flowers of daybreak, growing, glowing, in the East,
For the feast
On the blue horizon blossomed of the birth of merry morn,
Sure your influences you showered on my head, when I was born;
It was you that salved me then
With the spells that drew my dreams up, through the bars
Of this gaol of pride and passion, to the spheres beyond the stars;
And you gave me for a dower
Then to love the morning hour
And its peace yet unpolluted by the stress of striving men.
For the feast
On the blue horizon blossomed of the birth of merry morn,
Sure your influences you showered on my head, when I was born;
It was you that salved me then
With the spells that drew my dreams up, through the bars
Of this gaol of pride and passion, to the spheres beyond the stars;
And you gave me for a dower
Then to love the morning hour
And its peace yet unpolluted by the stress of striving men.
Gold of noontide, spreading, shedding on the earth
Light and mirth,
For the banquet of the bridal of the world-all and the sun,
I have cherished you from childhood till my days are well nigh done;
And to-day, when I am old,
More than ever, with new knowledge, now I prize
Your effulgences of glory in the summer-smalted skies;
And of this my wiser eld
Less and less of value held
Are the things of earthly treasure by your Heaven-minted gold.
Light and mirth,
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I have cherished you from childhood till my days are well nigh done;
And to-day, when I am old,
More than ever, with new knowledge, now I prize
Your effulgences of glory in the summer-smalted skies;
And of this my wiser eld
Less and less of value held
Are the things of earthly treasure by your Heaven-minted gold.
Sunset-standards, gleaming, streaming in the West,
O'er the breast
Of old Ocean far-outfluttered for the funeral of the Day,
Still my thought was fain to follow on your feet the Westward way;
Still you lured and led me far
In your train and ever farther, o'er the wave,
Tow'rd the mirages upmounting from the dying sun's sea grave:
And with youth long past, alack!
Still I follow in your track
To the spirit's Eldorados underneath the evening star.
O'er the breast
Of old Ocean far-outfluttered for the funeral of the Day,
Still my thought was fain to follow on your feet the Westward way;
Still you lured and led me far
In your train and ever farther, o'er the wave,
Tow'rd the mirages upmounting from the dying sun's sea grave:
And with youth long past, alack!
Still I follow in your track
To the spirit's Eldorados underneath the evening star.
Mild moon-silver, steeping sleeping earth and skies,
Hallow-wise,
In the sacrament of silence and the benison of night,
Dulcet influences of Nature, candid creatures of the light,
I have loved you all my life
With a love that passeth passion; and I trust,
When my spirit soars, delivered from this dungeon of the dust,
To be one again with you,
With the flowers, the rain, the dew,
At the term of Fate foreordered for the solving of my strife.
Hallow-wise,
In the sacrament of silence and the benison of night,
Dulcet influences of Nature, candid creatures of the light,
I have loved you all my life
With a love that passeth passion; and I trust,
When my spirit soars, delivered from this dungeon of the dust,
To be one again with you,
With the flowers, the rain, the dew,
At the term of Fate foreordered for the solving of my strife.
| Carol and Cadence | |