 | Poems of early and after years |  |
“Blending,
Poorly, yet truly, strivings gain'd or lost,
As one in whom two natures keep contending.”
Poorly, yet truly, strivings gain'd or lost,
As one in whom two natures keep contending.”
i
TO A MEMORY AND A HOPE MY MOTHER AND MY DAUGHTER THESE VOIC'D VIBRATIONS OF THE LINK BETWEEN THEM ARE AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
306
TO ------ ------,
ON RECEIVING FROM HER A SPRAY OF LILIES OF THE VALLEY.
Small lily, that the careless overlook,Though, to the finder, sweeter than the rose—
Pure, unobtrusive, fragrant-hearted flower—
How truthful is its portraiture of thee!
I've known thee until now, as floats the mist
Over the valley, silently aware
That sweetness known in heaven lay hid near by;
But, as the same mist, heavy with the night,
Falls in a dark tear to the lily's cup,
And finds it sweetest at the darkest hour,
So, thou pure girl, thy tender presence only
Has an unconscious ministry to me,
And near thee, in the night that shrouds me still,
My darkness is forgotten.
313
TO ------.
Thy love is like the thread of a new moonDrawn on the faint blue of a break in clouds:—
The thunder of a storm not surely o'er
Murmurs beneath it, and the lightning gleams
Brokenly still, in one mass dark and near,
As if it would close turbulently o'er
And make all black again. But, motionless,
As 'twere an angel's shallop in a calm,
The bent moon floats, and its round freight of hope
Lies in its breast—to unbelieving eyes
A shadow that can never grow more fair,—
But, to the clearer-sighted stars, a promise
Of brightness that will wax to fill a heaven.
| Poems of early and after years | |