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Madeline

With other poems and parables: By Thomas Gordon Hake

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 I. 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 VII. 
 VIII. 
 IX. 
IX. ON THE FUTURE.
 X. 
 XI. 
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 XV. 
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 XXI. 
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 XXVIII. 
 XXIX. 
 XXX. 
 XXXI. 
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 XXXIII. 
 XXXIV. 
 XXXV. 
 XXXVI. 
 XXXVII. 
 XXXVIII. 
 XXXIX. 
 XL. 
 XLI. 
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 XLVIII. 
 XLIX. 
 L. 
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 LII. 
 LIII. 
 LIV. 
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 LXIII. 
 LXIV. 
 LXV. 


184

IX. ON THE FUTURE.

And thou too, Future, sure and slow
Com'st daily forth anew,
With equal blessings to bestow
And curses to bestrew;
Thy gifts the half-expired remains
That breast the passing hour;
Baubles that death awhile disdains
The later to devour!
Thy wiles acquire thee man's belief,
The credit of the wise.
Who thinks of thee in time of grief
Thy promise to despise?
For hope is thine; scarce fledged, she springs
From out her native east,
Beats off the darkness with her wings,
And nestles in thy breast.
She mounts on the unrisen orb,
Breathes its auspicious flame,
Dreams how ere long she may absorb
The riches of thy name.

185

Real seems the vision for a day,
But ere she ends her round
The sun has shed its early ray,
And autumn holds the ground.
Eclipsed is thence her polar star,
And distant is her dream;
Not as of late in heaven afar,
But with receding gleam.
Now from her eyes the scales are cast;
She throws her glance behind,
And sees her image in the past
As of another mind!