WAITING.
[_]
(Suggested by trees bending over a dry water-course near Como.)
It will come, it will not tarry! We shall not wait in vain!
With a burst of sudden thunder, or the trickling of quiet rain.
A tranquil stream of blessing will well around our roots,
And the thrill of life will vibrate to our utmost budding shoots;
Or when all the land is silent, lifeless, and sad, and dumb,
From the snowy mountain-ranges the sound of joy will come,
The shock of the ancient battle (for the storm, not the calm, comes first)
And from the unchained glaciers the river of life will burst;
Ringing new peals of triumph through all the sultry plain;
For the light and the life must conquer, and the dead must live again.
Therefore with loving patience we bend o'er these channels dumb,
Awaiting the vanished Presence, and the Life which is to come.
