 | The Poems of A. C. Benson |  |
94
IN THE TRAIN
Bound for the west, I sate alone at ease;
The impatient engine puffed a vaporous curl;
Last came a bustling man, with boy and girl
That bore his baggage, and were fain to please.
The impatient engine puffed a vaporous curl;
Last came a bustling man, with boy and girl
That bore his baggage, and were fain to please.
He chid them, spake them roughly: then each child
Looked in his face and strove to understand,
And when he slept, they laid small hand in hand,
And softly and compassionately smiled.
Looked in his face and strove to understand,
And when he slept, they laid small hand in hand,
And softly and compassionately smiled.
As tender souls, on whom some bitter loss
Has fallen, gently name the vanished name,
Tracing the sombre shadow of the cross
With trembling lips, and plead to be forgiven,
And emulate, or wholly put to shame,
The careless magnanimity of heaven.
Has fallen, gently name the vanished name,
Tracing the sombre shadow of the cross
With trembling lips, and plead to be forgiven,
And emulate, or wholly put to shame,
The careless magnanimity of heaven.
| The Poems of A. C. Benson | |