 | A book of Bristol sonnets |  |
39
HARVEST THANKSGIVING AT ST. BARNABAS.
SEPTEMBER 5th, 1876.
Bring dahlias, like empurpled honey-comb;
Bring the gladiolus, whose flaming spear
Has smit to death the ripe and reeling year;
Strew every fruit from nature's teeming womb,
With that gold memory of a bounteous tomb,
Which gave, for one a hundred fold, the ear!
Ye singing men and tuneful maids, appear,
To praise the Master of the harvest-home!
First blade, then ear, last comes the seed's increase,
And, “sown in weakness, it is raised in power;”
Man gives God faith, and God returns the sower
Perfection's fruit, and storehouses of peace:
And thanking Him, we labourers learn to keep
Perpetual harvest till the angels reap.
| A book of Bristol sonnets | |