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TEN SONNETS EMBODYING RELIGIOUS IDEAS.
III.LIFE ITS OWN GUIDE.
Sometimes we realize our fond desires,Nor seldom doth the strong man seize his prize;
But ere we gain the Expectation dies,
And the Attainment's no more like the hope
Than are the ashes like the beacon fires
That shed them. When the day of life first broke,
How many starry crowns were in the skies!
But soon we find the mid-day by surprize
Hath come upon us, not a star remains,
Not an aurora cloud: nor are we grieved:
The man is still the same, with numerous gains:
Patience, the Knowledge he is undeceived,
Confident humbleness, more strong than fate:—
Experience thrusts us on, yet shows us not the gate.
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IV.LIFE WITHOUT FAITH.
Most fearfully and wondrously we're made;In fear and in the dark we strive to live
By sight, and in new confidence arrayed
Cry we to Nature, stay! to Fate, give, give!
Still loitering towards to-morrow, when to-day
Fails to bring forth from its too numerous toils
And manifold emotions, those great spoils
Wherewith to build a tower of strength and stay,
Reaching to heaven. Alas, we only find
To-morrow like to-day; the impending sky
Silent and blue, silent and dark and high,
The only changes, passing clouds and wind.
And round about us, blackening upwards, slopes
Accumulation vast of unproductive hopes!
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V.RESTORATION OF BELIEF.
Follow me, Jesus said, and they uprose,
Peter and Andrew rose and followed him,
Followed him even to Heaven through death most grim,
And through a long hard life without repose,
Save in the grand ideal of its close.
Take up your cross and follow me, he said,
And the world answers yet through all her dead.
And still would answer had we faith like those.
Peter and Andrew rose and followed him,
Followed him even to Heaven through death most grim,
And through a long hard life without repose,
Save in the grand ideal of its close.
Take up your cross and follow me, he said,
And the world answers yet through all her dead.
And still would answer had we faith like those.
Oh who will speak again such words of fire!
With gladsome haste and with rejoicing souls
How would men gird themselves for the emprize!
Leaving their black boats by the dead lake's mire,
Leaving their slimy nets by the cold shoals,
Leaving their old oars, nor once turn their eyes.
With gladsome haste and with rejoicing souls
How would men gird themselves for the emprize!
Leaving their black boats by the dead lake's mire,
Leaving their slimy nets by the cold shoals,
Leaving their old oars, nor once turn their eyes.
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VI.ON THE AUTHORITY OF ANTIQUITY.
Catholic Chapel, Christmas Day, 1850.
Why should the past loom out so fair and grand,
And the most ancient most demand our love?
Oh that we could with even balance stand
Between the past and future: like the dove
We could between the wastes of clouds and waves
Gather the olive leaves and turn again
Unto the home assigned to him who saves
The salt of this life. That supernal strain
Which sounded when the green-leaved world was young,
Sounds still when the great petals ruby red
Expand, and still will sound, though still unsung
By poet-sage in years to come: the dread
Soul-giving voice of God that spoke of old,
Speaks still, and he who hears is crowned with gold.
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VII.PEBBLES IN THE STREAM.
HARMONY BETWEEN THE SOUL AND NATURE.
Here on this little bridge in this warm day
We rest us from our idle sauntering walk.
Over our shadows its continuous talk
The stream maintains, while now and then a stray
Dry leaf may fall where the still waters play
In endless eddies, through whose clear brown deep
The gorgeous pebbles quiver in their sleep.
The stream still hastes but cannot pass away.
We rest us from our idle sauntering walk.
Over our shadows its continuous talk
The stream maintains, while now and then a stray
Dry leaf may fall where the still waters play
In endless eddies, through whose clear brown deep
The gorgeous pebbles quiver in their sleep.
The stream still hastes but cannot pass away.
Could I but find the words that would reveal
The unity in multiplicity,
And the profound strange harmony I feel
With those dead things, God's garments of to-day,
The listener's soul with mine they would anneal,
And make us one within eternity.
The unity in multiplicity,
And the profound strange harmony I feel
With those dead things, God's garments of to-day,
The listener's soul with mine they would anneal,
And make us one within eternity.
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IX.GOD AND THE SOUL.
Life is self-centred, and the light withinShines out upon the spheres of other lives,
Giving, receiving, into the deep hives
Of spirit, sense transformed to thought, made thin,
Essential, vital. So doth man outspin
The beautiful, the good, the just, the grand,
And all the kind affections round us stand
Like children whose sweet laughter cannot sin.
Life is self-centred, though revolving too
In its thrice-glorious abysmal sphere,
Spring blossoms, summer comes, fruits that ne'er grew
Elsewhere in our inspired hearts appear:
But who shall speak of that sole Sun, the True,
Whose light sheds down the fervours of our Year?
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X.SPIRITUAL LIFE.
Ought we to long for more than we possess?To seek for Babel's heights or Jacob's stair,
For lotus food, elixir happiness,
Or aught that may not flower in mortal air?
Are they not all within us, towering there,
Midway the valleys of the spiritual east,
And every morning when we wake, behold,
They shine out freshened by the dews: what priest
Is like the Voice within us! what so old
August and holy as the daily joy
Whereby the heart beats. I can feel the fold
Of wings that fan my face from all annoy,
With each kind word flies up a milk white dove,
Haloes of light expand around the brows we love!
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