The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti A variorum edition: Edited, with textual notes and introductions, by R. W. Crump |
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 | II. | VOLUME II |
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 | The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti |  |
II. VOLUME II
I
Sing-Song A Nursery Rhyme Book (1872)
19
RHYMES DEDICATED WITHOUT PERMISSION TO THE BABY WHO SUGGESTED THEM
[Angels at the foot]
Angels at the foot,And Angels at the head,
And like a curly little lamb
My pretty babe in bed.
[Love me,—I love you]
Love me,—I love you,
Love me, my baby;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Sing it as may be.
Love me, my baby;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Sing it as may be.
Mother's arms under you,
Her eyes above you;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Love me,—I love you.
Her eyes above you;
Sing it high, sing it low,
Love me,—I love you.
[My baby has a father and a mother]
My baby has a father and a mother,Rich little baby!
Fatherless, motherless, I know another
Forlorn as may be:
Poor little baby!
20
[Our little baby fell asleep]
Our little baby fell asleep,And may not wake again
For days and days, and weeks and weeks;
But then he'll wake again,
And come with his own pretty look,
And kiss Mamma again.
[“Kookoorookoo! kookoorookoo!”]
“Kookoorookoo! kookoorookoo!”
Crows the cock before the morn;
“Kikirikee! kikirikee!”
Roses in the east are born.
Crows the cock before the morn;
“Kikirikee! kikirikee!”
Roses in the east are born.
“Kookoorookoo! kookoorookoo!”
Early birds begin their singing;
“Kikirikee! kikirikee!”
The day, the day, the day is springing.
Early birds begin their singing;
“Kikirikee! kikirikee!”
The day, the day, the day is springing.
[Baby cry—]
Baby cry—Oh fie!—
At the physic in the cup:
Gulp it twice
And gulp it thrice,
Baby gulp it up.
[Eight o'clock]
Eight o'clock;The postman's knock!
Five letters for Papa;
One for Lou,
And none for you,
And three for dear Mamma.
[Bread and milk for breakfast]
Bread and milk for breakfast,And woollen frocks to wear,
And a crumb for robin redbreast
On the cold days of the year.
21
[There's snow on the fields]
There's snow on the fields,
And cold in the cottage,
While I sit in the chimney nook
Supping hot pottage.
And cold in the cottage,
While I sit in the chimney nook
Supping hot pottage.
My clothes are soft and warm,
Fold upon fold,
But I'm so sorry for the poor
Out in the cold.
Fold upon fold,
But I'm so sorry for the poor
Out in the cold.
[Dead in the cold, a song-singing thrush]
Dead in the cold, a song-singing thrush,Dead at the foot of a snowberry bush,—
Weave him a coffin of rush,
Dig him a grave where the soft mosses grow,
Raise him a tombstone of snow.
[I dug and dug amongst the snow]
I dug and dug amongst the snow,
And thought the flowers would never grow;
I dug and dug amongst the sand,
And still no green thing came to hand.
And thought the flowers would never grow;
I dug and dug amongst the sand,
And still no green thing came to hand.
Melt, O snow! the warm winds blow
To thaw the flowers and melt the snow;
But all the winds from every land
Will rear no blossom from the sand.
To thaw the flowers and melt the snow;
But all the winds from every land
Will rear no blossom from the sand.
[A city plum is not a plum]
A city plum is not a plum;A dumb-bell is no bell, though dumb;
A party rat is not a rat;
A sailor's cat is not a cat;
A soldier's frog is not a frog;
A captain's log is not a log.
[Your brother has a falcon]
Your brother has a falcon,
Your sister has a flower;
But what is left for mannikin,
Born within an hour?
Your sister has a flower;
But what is left for mannikin,
Born within an hour?
22
I'll nurse you on my knee, my knee,
My own little son;
I'll rock you, rock you, in my arms,
My least little one.
My own little son;
I'll rock you, rock you, in my arms,
My least little one.
[Hear what the mournful linnets say]
Hear what the mournful linnets say:
“We built our nest compact and warm,
But cruel boys came round our way
And took our summerhouse by storm.
“We built our nest compact and warm,
But cruel boys came round our way
And took our summerhouse by storm.
“They crushed the eggs so neatly laid;
So now we sit with drooping wing,
And watch the ruin they have made,
Too late to build, too sad to sing.”
So now we sit with drooping wing,
And watch the ruin they have made,
Too late to build, too sad to sing.”
[A baby's cradle with no baby in it]
A baby's cradle with no baby in it,A baby's grave where autumn leaves drop sere;
The sweet soul gathered home to Paradise,
The body waiting here.
[Hop-o'-my-thumb and little Jack Horner]
Hop-o'-my-thumb and little Jack Horner,What do you mean by tearing and fighting?
Sturdy dog Trot close round the corner,
I never caught him growling and biting.
[Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth]
Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth,Love is like a rose the joy of all the earth;
Faith is like a lily lifted high and white,
Love is like a lovely rose the world's delight;
Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth,
But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.
[O wind, why do you never rest]
O wind, why do you never rest,Wandering, whistling to and fro,
23
From the dim north bringing snow?
[Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?]
Crying, my little one, footsore and weary?
Fall asleep, pretty one, warm on my shoulder:
I must tramp on through the winter night dreary,
While the snow falls on me colder and colder.
Fall asleep, pretty one, warm on my shoulder:
I must tramp on through the winter night dreary,
While the snow falls on me colder and colder.
You are my one, and I have not another;
Sleep soft, my darling, my trouble and treasure;
Sleep warm and soft in the arms of your mother,
Dreaming of pretty things, dreaming of pleasure.
Sleep soft, my darling, my trouble and treasure;
Sleep warm and soft in the arms of your mother,
Dreaming of pretty things, dreaming of pleasure.
[Growing in the vale]
Growing in the vale
By the uplands hilly,
Growing straight and frail,
Lady Daffadowndilly.
By the uplands hilly,
Growing straight and frail,
Lady Daffadowndilly.
In a golden crown,
And a scant green gown
While the spring blows chilly,
Lady Daffadown,
Sweet Daffadowndilly.
And a scant green gown
While the spring blows chilly,
Lady Daffadown,
Sweet Daffadowndilly.
[A linnet in a gilded cage,—]
A linnet in a gilded cage,—
A linnet on a bough,—
In frosty winter one might doubt
Which bird is luckier now.
A linnet on a bough,—
In frosty winter one might doubt
Which bird is luckier now.
But let the trees burst out in leaf,
And nests be on the bough,
Which linnet is the luckier bird,
Oh who could doubt it now?
And nests be on the bough,
Which linnet is the luckier bird,
Oh who could doubt it now?
[Wrens and robins in the hedge]
Wrens and robins in the hedge,Wrens and robins here and there;
24
Everywhere!
[My baby has a mottled fist]
My baby has a mottled fist,My baby has a neck in creases;
My baby kisses and is kissed,
For he's the very thing for kisses.
[Why did baby die]
Why did baby die,
Making Father sigh,
Mother cry?
Making Father sigh,
Mother cry?
Flowers, that bloom to die,
Make no reply
Of “why?”
But bow and die.
Make no reply
Of “why?”
But bow and die.
[If all were rain and never sun]
If all were rain and never sun,No bow could span the hill;
If all were sun and never rain,
There'd be no rainbow still.
[O wind, where have you been]
O wind, where have you been,
That you blow so sweet?
Among the violets
Which blossom at your feet.
That you blow so sweet?
Among the violets
Which blossom at your feet.
The honeysuckle waits
For Summer and for heat.
But violets in the chilly Spring
Make the turf so sweet.
For Summer and for heat.
But violets in the chilly Spring
Make the turf so sweet.
[On the grassy banks]
On the grassy banks
Lambkins at their pranks;
Woolly sisters, woolly brothers
Lambkins at their pranks;
Woolly sisters, woolly brothers
25
Jumping off their feet
While their woolly mothers
Watch by them and bleat.
While their woolly mothers
Watch by them and bleat.
[Rushes in a watery place]
Rushes in a watery place,And reeds in a hollow;
A soaring skylark in the sky,
A darting swallow;
And where pale blossom used to hang
Ripe fruit to follow.
[Minnie and Mattie]
Minnie and Mattie
And fat little May,
Out in the country,
Spending a day.
And fat little May,
Out in the country,
Spending a day.
Such a bright day,
With the sun glowing,
And the trees half in leaf,
And the grass growing.
With the sun glowing,
And the trees half in leaf,
And the grass growing.
Pinky white pigling
Squeals through his snout,
Woolly white lambkin
Frisks all about.
Squeals through his snout,
Woolly white lambkin
Frisks all about.
Cluck! cluck! the nursing hen
Summons her folk,—
Ducklings all downy soft
Yellow as yolk.
Summons her folk,—
Ducklings all downy soft
Yellow as yolk.
Cluck! cluck! the mother hen
Summons her chickens
To peck the dainty bits
Found in her pickings.
Summons her chickens
To peck the dainty bits
Found in her pickings.
Minnie and Mattie
And May carry posies,
Half of sweet violets,
Half of primroses.
And May carry posies,
Half of sweet violets,
Half of primroses.
26
Give the sun time enough,
Glowing and glowing,
He'll rouse the roses
And bring them blowing.
Glowing and glowing,
He'll rouse the roses
And bring them blowing.
Don't wait for roses
Losing today,
O Minnie, Mattie,
And wise little May.
Losing today,
O Minnie, Mattie,
And wise little May.
Violets and primroses
Blossom today
For Minnie and Mattie
And fat little May.
Blossom today
For Minnie and Mattie
And fat little May.
[Heartsease in my garden bed]
Heartsease in my garden bed,With sweetwilliam white and red,
Honeysuckle on my wall:—
Heartsease blossoms in my heart
When sweet William comes to call,
But it withers when we part,
And the honey-trumpets fall.
[If I were a Queen]
If I were a Queen,
What would I do?
I'd make you King,
And I'd wait on you.
What would I do?
I'd make you King,
And I'd wait on you.
If I were a King,
What would I do?
I'd make you Queen,
For I'd marry you.
What would I do?
I'd make you Queen,
For I'd marry you.
[What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow]
What are heavy? sea-sand and sorrow:What are brief? today and tomorrow:
What are frail? Spring blossoms and youth:
What are deep? the ocean and truth.
27
[There is but one May in the year]
There is but one May in the year,
And sometimes May is wet and cold;
There is but one May in the year
Before the year grows old.
And sometimes May is wet and cold;
There is but one May in the year
Before the year grows old.
Yet though it be the chilliest May,
With least of sun and most of showers,
Its wind and dew, its night and day,
Bring up the flowers.
With least of sun and most of showers,
Its wind and dew, its night and day,
Bring up the flowers.
[The summer nights are short]
The summer nights are short
Where northern days are long:
For hours and hours lark after lark
Trills out his song.
Where northern days are long:
For hours and hours lark after lark
Trills out his song.
The summer days are short
Where southern nights are long:
Yet short the night when nightingales
Trill out their song.
Where southern nights are long:
Yet short the night when nightingales
Trill out their song.
[The days are clear]
The days are clear,Day after day,
When April's here,
That leads to May,
And June
Must follow soon:
Stay, June, stay!—
If only we could stop the moon
And June!
[Twist me a crown of wind-flowers]
Twist me a crown of wind-flowers;
That I may fly away
To hear the singers at their song,
And players at their play.
That I may fly away
To hear the singers at their song,
And players at their play.
Put on your crown of wind-flowers:
But whither would you go?
Beyond the surging of the sea
And the storms that blow.
But whither would you go?
28
And the storms that blow.
Alas! your crown of wind-flowers
Can never make you fly:
I twist them in a crown today,
And tonight they die.
Can never make you fly:
I twist them in a crown today,
And tonight they die.
[Brown and furry]
Brown and furryCaterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not,
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.
[A toadstool comes up in a night,—]
A toadstool comes up in a night,—Learn the lesson, little folk:—
An oak grows on a hundred years,
But then it is an oak.
[A pocket handkerchief to hem—]
A pocket handkerchief to hem—
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!
How many stitches it will take
Before it's done, I fear.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!
How many stitches it will take
Before it's done, I fear.
Yet set a stitch and then a stitch,
And stitch and stitch away,
Till stitch by stitch the hem is done—
And after work is play!
And stitch and stitch away,
Till stitch by stitch the hem is done—
And after work is play!
[If a pig wore a wig]
If a pig wore a wig,
What could we say?
Treat him as a gentleman,
And say “Good day.”
What could we say?
29
And say “Good day.”
If his tail chanced to fail,
What could we do?—
Send him to the tailoress
To get one new.
What could we do?—
Send him to the tailoress
To get one new.
[Seldom “can't,”]
Seldom “can't,”Seldom “don't;”
Never “shan't,”
Never “won't.”
[1 and 1 are 2—]
1 and 1 are 2—
That's for me and you.
That's for me and you.
2 and 2 are 4—
That's a couple more.
That's a couple more.
3 and 3 are 6
Barley-sugar sticks.
Barley-sugar sticks.
4 and 4 are 8
Tumblers at the gate.
Tumblers at the gate.
5 and 5 are 10
Bluff seafaring men.
Bluff seafaring men.
6 and 6 are 12
Garden lads who delve.
Garden lads who delve.
7 and 7 are 14
Young men bent on sporting.
Young men bent on sporting.
8 and 8 are 16
Pills the doctor's mixing.
Pills the doctor's mixing.
9 and 9 are 18
Passengers kept waiting.
Passengers kept waiting.
10 and 10 are 20
Roses—pleasant plenty!
Roses—pleasant plenty!
30
11 and 11 are 22
Sums for brother George to do.
Sums for brother George to do.
12 and 12 are 24
Pretty pictures, and no more.
Pretty pictures, and no more.
[How many seconds in a minute?]
How many seconds in a minute?
Sixty, and no more in it.
Sixty, and no more in it.
How many minutes in an hour?
Sixty for sun and shower.
Sixty for sun and shower.
How many hours in a day?
Twenty-four for work and play.
Twenty-four for work and play.
How many days in a week?
Seven both to hear and speak.
Seven both to hear and speak.
How many weeks in a month?
Four, as the swift moon runn'th.
Four, as the swift moon runn'th.
How many months in a year?
Twelve the almanack makes clear.
Twelve the almanack makes clear.
How many years in an age?
One hundred says the sage.
One hundred says the sage.
How many ages in time?
No one knows the rhyme.
No one knows the rhyme.
[What will you give me for my pound?]
What will you give me for my pound?Full twenty shillings round.
What will you give me for my shilling?
Twleve pence to give I'm willing.
What will you give me for my penny?
Four farthings, just so many.
[January cold desolate]
January cold desolate;February all dripping wet;
March wind ranges;
April changes;
31
To flowers of May,
And sunny June
Brings longest day;
In scorched July
The storm-clouds fly
Lightning torn;
August bears corn,
September fruit;
In rough October
Earth must disrobe her;
Stars fall and shoot
In keen November;
And night is long
And cold is strong
In bleak December.
[What is pink? a rose is pink]
What is pink? a rose is pinkBy the fountain's brink.
What is red? a poppy's red
In its barley bed.
What is blue? the sky is blue
Where the clouds float thro'.
What is white? a swan is white
Sailing in the light.
What is yellow? pears are yellow,
Rich and ripe and mellow.
What is green? the grass is green,
With small flowers between.
What is violet? clouds are violet
In the summer twilight.
What is orange? why, an orange,
Just an orange!
[Mother shake the cherry-tree]
Mother shake the cherry-tree,
Susan catch a cherry;
Oh how funny that will be,
Let's be merry!
Susan catch a cherry;
32
Let's be merry!
One for brother, one for sister,
Two for mother more,
Six for father, hot and tired,
Knocking at the door.
Two for mother more,
Six for father, hot and tired,
Knocking at the door.
[A pin has a head, but has no hair]
A pin has a head, but has no hair;A clock has a face, but no mouth there;
Needles have eyes, but they cannot see;
A fly has a trunk without lock or key;
A timepiece may lose, but cannot win;
A corn-field dimples without a chin;
A hill has no leg, but has a foot;
A wine-glass a stem, but not a root;
A watch has hands, but no thumb or finger;
A boot has a tongue, but is no singer;
Rivers run, though they have no feet;
A saw has teeth, but it does not eat;
Ash-trees have keys, yet never a lock;
And baby crows, without being a cock.
[Hopping frog, hop here and be seen]
Hopping frog, hop here and be seen,
I'll not pelt you with stick or stone:
Your cap is laced and your coat is green;
Good bye, we'll let each other alone.
I'll not pelt you with stick or stone:
Your cap is laced and your coat is green;
Good bye, we'll let each other alone.
Plodding toad, plod here and be looked at,
You the finger of scorn is crooked at:
But though you're lumpish, you're harmless too;
You won't hurt me, and I won't hurt you.
You the finger of scorn is crooked at:
But though you're lumpish, you're harmless too;
You won't hurt me, and I won't hurt you.
[Where innocent bright-eyed daisies are]
Where innocent bright-eyed daisies are,With blades of grass between,
Each daisy stands up like a star
Out of a sky of green.
33
[The city mouse lives in a house;—]
The city mouse lives in a house;—
The garden mouse lives in a bower,
He's friendly with the frogs and toads,
And sees the pretty plants in flower.
The garden mouse lives in a bower,
He's friendly with the frogs and toads,
And sees the pretty plants in flower.
The city mouse eats bread and cheese;—
The garden mouse eats what he can;
We will not grudge him seeds and stalks,
Poor little timid furry man.
The garden mouse eats what he can;
We will not grudge him seeds and stalks,
Poor little timid furry man.
[What does the donkey bray about?]
What does the donkey bray about?
What does the pig grunt through his snout?
What does the goose mean by a hiss?
Oh, Nurse, if you can tell me this,
I'll give you such a kiss.
What does the pig grunt through his snout?
What does the goose mean by a hiss?
Oh, Nurse, if you can tell me this,
I'll give you such a kiss.
The cockatoo calls “cockatoo,”
The magpie chatters “how d'ye do?”
The jackdaw bids me “go away,”
Cuckoo cries “cuckoo” half the day:
What do the others say?
The magpie chatters “how d'ye do?”
The jackdaw bids me “go away,”
Cuckoo cries “cuckoo” half the day:
What do the others say?
[Three plum buns]
Three plum buns
To eat here at the stile
In the clover meadow,
For we have walked a mile.
To eat here at the stile
In the clover meadow,
For we have walked a mile.
One for you, and one for me,
And one left over:
Give it to the boy who shouts
To scare sheep from the clover.
And one left over:
Give it to the boy who shouts
To scare sheep from the clover.
[A motherless soft lambkin]
A motherless soft lambkinAlone upon a hill;
No mother's fleece to shelter him
And wrap him from the cold:—
I'll run to him and comfort him,
I'll fetch him, that I will;
34
Until he's strong and bold.
[Dancing on the hill-tops]
Dancing on the hill-tops,
Singing in the valleys,
Laughing with the echoes,
Merry little Alice.
Singing in the valleys,
Laughing with the echoes,
Merry little Alice.
Playing games with lambkins
In the flowering valleys,
Gathering pretty posies,
Helpful little Alice.
In the flowering valleys,
Gathering pretty posies,
Helpful little Alice.
If her father's cottage
Turned into a palace,
And he owned the hill-tops
And the flowering valleys,
She'd be none the happier,
Happy little Alice.
Turned into a palace,
And he owned the hill-tops
And the flowering valleys,
She'd be none the happier,
Happy little Alice.
[When fishes set umbrellas up]
When fishes set umbrellas upIf the rain-drops run,
Lizards will want their parasols
To shade them from the sun.
[The peacock has a score of eyes]
The peacock has a score of eyes,
With which he cannot see;
The cod-fish has a silent sound,
However that may be;
With which he cannot see;
The cod-fish has a silent sound,
However that may be;
No dandelions tell the time,
Although they turn to clocks;
Cat's-cradle does not hold the cat,
Nor foxglove fit the fox.
Although they turn to clocks;
Cat's-cradle does not hold the cat,
Nor foxglove fit the fox.
[Pussy has a whiskered face]
Pussy has a whiskered face,Kitty has such pretty ways;
35
And has a heart to love us all.
[The dog lies in his kennel]
The dog lies in his kennel,
And Puss purrs on the rug,
And baby perches on my knee
For me to love and hug.
And Puss purrs on the rug,
And baby perches on my knee
For me to love and hug.
Pat the dog and stroke the cat,
Each in its degree;
And cuddle and kiss my baby,
And baby kiss me.
Each in its degree;
And cuddle and kiss my baby,
And baby kiss me.
[If hope grew on a bush]
If hope grew on a bush,
And joy grew on a tree,
What a nosegay for the plucking
There would be!
And joy grew on a tree,
What a nosegay for the plucking
There would be!
But oh! in windy autumn,
When frail flowers wither,
What should we do for hope and joy,
Fading together?
When frail flowers wither,
What should we do for hope and joy,
Fading together?
[I planted a hand]
I planted a hand
And there came up a palm,
I planted a heart
And there came up balm.
And there came up a palm,
I planted a heart
And there came up balm.
Then I planted a wish,
But there sprang a thorn,
While heaven frowned with thunder
And earth sighed forlorn.
But there sprang a thorn,
While heaven frowned with thunder
And earth sighed forlorn.
[Under the ivy bush]
Under the ivy bush
One sits sighing,
And under the willow tree
One sits crying:—
One sits sighing,
And under the willow tree
One sits crying:—
36
Under the ivy bush
Cease from your sighing,
But under the willow tree
Lie down a-dying.
Cease from your sighing,
But under the willow tree
Lie down a-dying.
[There is one that has a head without an eye]
There is one that has a head without an eye,And there's one that has an eye without a head:
You may find the answer if you try;
And when all is said,
Half the answer hangs upon a thread!
[If a mouse could fly]
If a mouse could fly,
Or if a crow could swim,
Or if a sprat could walk and talk,
I'd like to be like him.
Or if a crow could swim,
Or if a sprat could walk and talk,
I'd like to be like him.
If a mouse could fly,
He might fly away;
Or if a crow could swim,
It might turn him grey;
Or if a sprat could walk and talk,
What would he find to say?
He might fly away;
Or if a crow could swim,
It might turn him grey;
Or if a sprat could walk and talk,
What would he find to say?
[Sing me a song—]
Sing me a song—
What shall I sing?—
Three merry sisters
Dancing in a ring,
Light and fleet upon their feet
As birds upon the wing.
What shall I sing?—
Three merry sisters
Dancing in a ring,
Light and fleet upon their feet
As birds upon the wing.
Tell me a tale—
What shall I tell?—
Two mournful sisters,
And a tolling knell,
Tolling ding and tolling dong,
Ding dong bell.
What shall I tell?—
Two mournful sisters,
And a tolling knell,
Tolling ding and tolling dong,
Ding dong bell.
37
[The lily has an air]
The lily has an air,And the snowdrop a grace,
And the sweetpea a way,
And the heartsease a face,—
Yet there's nothing like the rose
When she blows.
[Margaret has a milking-pail]
Margaret has a milking-pail,
And she rises early;
Thomas has a threshing-flail,
And he's up betimes.
And she rises early;
Thomas has a threshing-flail,
And he's up betimes.
Sometimes crossing through the grass
Where the dew lies pearly,
They say “Good morrow” as they pass
By the leafy limes.
Where the dew lies pearly,
They say “Good morrow” as they pass
By the leafy limes.
[In the meadow—what in the meadow?]
In the meadow—what in the meadow?
Bluebells, buttercups, meadowsweet,
And fairy rings for the children's feet
In the meadow.
Bluebells, buttercups, meadowsweet,
And fairy rings for the children's feet
In the meadow.
In the garden—what in the garden?
Jacob's-ladder and Solomon's-seal,
And Love-lies-bleeding beside All-heal
In the garden.
Jacob's-ladder and Solomon's-seal,
And Love-lies-bleeding beside All-heal
In the garden.
[A frisky lamb]
A frisky lambAnd a frisky child
Playing their pranks
In a cowslip meadow:
The sky all blue
And the air all mild
And the fields all sun
And the lanes half shadow.
38
[Mix a pancake]
Mix a pancake,Stir a pancake,
Pop it in the pan;
Fry the pancake,
Toss the pancake,—
Catch it if you can.
[The wind has such a rainy sound]
The wind has such a rainy sound
Moaning through the town,
The sea has such a windy sound,—
Will the ships go down?
Moaning through the town,
The sea has such a windy sound,—
Will the ships go down?
The apples in the orchard
Tumble from their tree.—
Oh will the ships go down, go down,
In the windy sea?
Tumble from their tree.—
Oh will the ships go down, go down,
In the windy sea?
[Three little children]
Three little children
On the wide wide earth,
Motherless children—
Cared for from their birth
By tender Angels.
On the wide wide earth,
Motherless children—
Cared for from their birth
By tender Angels.
Three little children
On the wide wide sea,
Motherless children—
Safe as safe can be
With guardian Angels.
On the wide wide sea,
Motherless children—
Safe as safe can be
With guardian Angels.
[Fly away, fly away over the sea]
Fly away, fly away over the sea,Sun-loving swallow, for summer is done;
Come again, come again, come back to me,
Bringing the summer and bringing the sun.
[Minnie bakes oaten cakes]
Minnie bakes oaten cakes,Minnie brews ale,
39
Home from sea.
And she glows like a rose,
Who was so pale,
And “Are you sure the church clock goes?”
Says she.
[A white hen sitting]
A white hen sitting
On white eggs three:
Next, three speckled chickens
As plump as plump can be.
On white eggs three:
Next, three speckled chickens
As plump as plump can be.
An owl, and a hawk,
And a bat come to see:
But chicks beneath their mother's wing
Squat safe as safe can be.
And a bat come to see:
But chicks beneath their mother's wing
Squat safe as safe can be.
[Currants on a bush]
Currants on a bush,And figs upon a stem,
And cherries on a bending bough,
And Ned to gather them.
[I have but one rose in the world]
I have but one rose in the world,And my one rose stands a-drooping:
Oh when my single rose is dead
There'll be but thorns for stooping.
[Rosy maiden Winifred]
Rosy maiden Winifred,With a milkpail on her head,
Tripping through the corn,
While the dew lies on the wheat
In the sunny morn.
Scarlet shepherd's-weatherglass
Spreads wide open at her feet
As they pass;
40
While she brushes by,
And a lark sings from the sky
“All is well.”
[When the cows come home the milk is coming]
When the cows come home the milk is coming,Honey's made while the bees are humming;
Duck and drake on the rushy lake,
And the deer live safe in the breezy brake;
And timid, funny, brisk little bunny,
Winks his nose and sits all sunny.
[Roses blushing red and white]
Roses blushing red and white,For delight;
Honeysuckle wreaths above,
For love;
Dim sweet-scented heliotrope,
For hope;
Shining lilies tall and straight,
For royal state;
Dusky pansies, let them be
For memory;
With violets of fragrant breath,
For death.
[“Ding a ding,”]
“Ding a ding,”
The sweet bells sing,
And say:
“Come, all be gay”
For a wedding day.
The sweet bells sing,
And say:
“Come, all be gay”
For a wedding day.
“Dong a dong,”
The bells sigh long,
And call:
“Weep one, weep all”
For a funeral.
The bells sigh long,
And call:
“Weep one, weep all”
For a funeral.
41
[A ring upon her finger]
A ring upon her finger,
Walks the bride,
With the bridegroom tall and handsome
At her side.
Walks the bride,
With the bridegroom tall and handsome
At her side.
A veil upon her forehead,
Walks the bride,
With the bridegroom proud and merry
At her side.
Walks the bride,
With the bridegroom proud and merry
At her side.
Fling flowers beneath the footsteps
Of the bride;
Fling flowers before the bridegroom
At her side.
Of the bride;
Fling flowers before the bridegroom
At her side.
[“Ferry me across the water]
“Ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do.”
“If you've a penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.”
Do, boatman, do.”
“If you've a penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.”
“I have a penny in my purse,
And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do.”
And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do.”
“Step into my ferry-boat,
Be they black or blue,
And for the penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.”
Be they black or blue,
And for the penny in your purse
I'll ferry you.”
[When a mounting skylark sings]
When a mounting skylark sings
In the sunlit summer morn,
I know that heaven is up on high,
And on earth are fields of corn.
In the sunlit summer morn,
I know that heaven is up on high,
And on earth are fields of corn.
But when a nightingale sings
In the moonlit summer even,
I know not if earth is merely earth,
Only that heaven is heaven.
In the moonlit summer even,
I know not if earth is merely earth,
Only that heaven is heaven.
42
[Who has seen the wind?]
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro'.
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling
The wind is passing thro'.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads
The wind is passing by.
[The horses of the sea]
The horses of the sea
Rear a foaming crest,
But the horses of the land
Serve us the best.
Rear a foaming crest,
But the horses of the land
Serve us the best.
The horses of the land
Munch corn and clover,
While the foaming sea-horses
Toss and turn over.
Munch corn and clover,
While the foaming sea-horses
Toss and turn over.
[O sailor, come ashore]
O sailor, come ashore,
What have you brought for me?
Red coral, white coral,
Coral from the sea.
What have you brought for me?
Red coral, white coral,
Coral from the sea.
I did not dig it from the ground,
Nor pluck it from a tree;
Feeble insects made it
In the stormy sea.
Nor pluck it from a tree;
Feeble insects made it
In the stormy sea.
[A diamond or a coal?]
A diamond or a coal?
A diamond, if you please:
Who cares about a clumsy coal
Beneath the summer trees?
A diamond, if you please:
Who cares about a clumsy coal
Beneath the summer trees?
A diamond or a coal?
A coal, sir, if you please:
One comes to care about the coal
What time the waters freeze.
A coal, sir, if you please:
One comes to care about the coal
What time the waters freeze.
43
[An emerald is as green as grass]
An emerald is as green as grass;
A ruby red as blood;
A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
A flint lies in the mud.
A ruby red as blood;
A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
A flint lies in the mud.
A diamond is a brilliant stone,
To catch the world's desire;
An opal holds a fiery spark;
But a flint holds fire.
To catch the world's desire;
An opal holds a fiery spark;
But a flint holds fire.
[Boats sail on the rivers]
Boats sail on the rivers,
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier far than these.
And ships sail on the seas;
But clouds that sail across the sky
Are prettier far than these.
There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.
As pretty as you please;
But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,
And builds a road from earth to sky,
Is prettier far than these.
[The lily has a smooth stalk]
The lily has a smooth stalk,
Will never hurt your hand;
But the rose upon her briar
Is lady of the land.
Will never hurt your hand;
But the rose upon her briar
Is lady of the land.
There's sweetness in an apple tree,
And profit in the corn;
But lady of all beauty
Is a rose upon a thorn.
And profit in the corn;
But lady of all beauty
Is a rose upon a thorn.
When with moss and honey
She tips her bending briar,
And half unfolds her glowing heart,
She sets the world on fire.
She tips her bending briar,
And half unfolds her glowing heart,
She sets the world on fire.
[Hurt no living thing]
Hurt no living thing:
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
Nor moth with dusty wing,
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.
Ladybird, nor butterfly,
44
Nor cricket chirping cheerily,
Nor grasshopper so light of leap,
Nor dancing gnat, nor beetle fat,
Nor harmless worms that creep.
[I caught a little ladybird]
I caught a little ladybird
That flies far away;
I caught a little lady wife
That is both staid and gay.
That flies far away;
I caught a little lady wife
That is both staid and gay.
Come back, my scarlet ladybird,
Back from far away;
I weary of my dolly wife,
My wife that cannot play.
Back from far away;
I weary of my dolly wife,
My wife that cannot play.
She's such a senseless wooden thing
She stares the livelong day;
Her wig of gold is stiff and cold
And cannot change to grey.
She stares the livelong day;
Her wig of gold is stiff and cold
And cannot change to grey.
[All the bells were ringing]
All the bells were ringingAnd all the birds were singing,
When Molly sat down crying
For her broken doll:
O you silly Moll!
Sobbing and sighing
For a broken doll,
When all the bells are ringing,
And all the birds are singing.
[Wee wee husband]
Wee wee husband,
Give me some money,
I have no comfits,
And I have no honey.
Give me some money,
I have no comfits,
And I have no honey.
Wee wee wifie,
I have no money,
Milk, nor meat, nor bread to eat,
Comfits, nor honey.
I have no money,
45
Comfits, nor honey.
[I have a little husband]
I have a little husband
And he is gone to sea,
The winds that whistle round his ship
Fly home to me.
And he is gone to sea,
The winds that whistle round his ship
Fly home to me.
The winds that sigh about me
Return again to him;
So I would fly, if only I
Were light of limb.
Return again to him;
So I would fly, if only I
Were light of limb.
[The dear old woman in the lane]
The dear old woman in the lane
Is sick and sore with pains and aches,
We'll go to her this afternoon,
And take her tea and eggs and cakes.
Is sick and sore with pains and aches,
We'll go to her this afternoon,
And take her tea and eggs and cakes.
We'll stop to make the kettle boil,
And brew some tea, and set the tray,
And poach an egg, and toast a cake,
And wheel her chair round, if we may.
And brew some tea, and set the tray,
And poach an egg, and toast a cake,
And wheel her chair round, if we may.
[Swift and sure the swallow]
Swift and sure the swallow,Slow and sure the snail:
Slow and sure may miss his way,
Swift and sure may fail.
[“I dreamt I caught a little owl]
“I dreamt I caught a little owl
And the bird was blue—”
And the bird was blue—”
“But you may hunt for ever
And not find such an one.”
And not find such an one.”
“I dreamt I set a sunflower,
And red as blood it grew—”
And red as blood it grew—”
“But such a sunflower never
Bloomed beneath the sun.”
Bloomed beneath the sun.”
46
[What does the bee do?]
What does the bee do?Bring home honey.
And what does Father do?
Bring home money.
And what does Mother do?
Lay out the money.
And what does baby do?
Eat up the honey.
[I have a Poll parrot]
I have a Poll parrot,
And Poll is my doll,
And my nurse is Polly,
And my sister Poll.
And Poll is my doll,
And my nurse is Polly,
And my sister Poll.
“Polly!” cried Polly,
“Don't tear Polly dolly”—
While softhearted Poll
Trembled for the doll.
“Don't tear Polly dolly”—
While softhearted Poll
Trembled for the doll.
[A house of cards]
A house of cards
Is neat and small:
Shake the table,
It must fall.
Is neat and small:
Shake the table,
It must fall.
Find the Court cards
One by one;
Raise it, roof it,—
Now it's done:—
Shake the table!
That's the fun.
One by one;
Raise it, roof it,—
Now it's done:—
Shake the table!
That's the fun.
[The rose with such a bonny blush]
The rose with such a bonny blush,What has the rose to blush about?
If it's the sun that makes her flush,
What's in the sun to flush about?
47
[The rose that blushes rosy red]
The rose that blushes rosy red,She must hang her head;
The lily that blows spotless white,
She may stand upright.
[Oh fair to see]
Oh fair to see
Bloom-laden cherry tree,
Arrayed in sunny white;
An April day's delight,
Oh fair to see!
Bloom-laden cherry tree,
Arrayed in sunny white;
An April day's delight,
Oh fair to see!
Oh fair to see
Fruit-laden cherry tree,
With balls of shining red
Decking a leafy head,
Oh fair to see!
Fruit-laden cherry tree,
With balls of shining red
Decking a leafy head,
Oh fair to see!
[Clever little Willie wee]
Clever little Willie wee,
Bright eyed, blue eyed little fellow;
Merry little Margery
With her hair all yellow.
Bright eyed, blue eyed little fellow;
Merry little Margery
With her hair all yellow.
Little Willie in his heart
Is a sailor on the sea,
And he often cons a chart
With sister Margery.
Is a sailor on the sea,
And he often cons a chart
With sister Margery.
[The peach tree on the southern wall]
The peach tree on the southern wall
Has basked so long beneath the sun,
Her score of peaches great and small
Bloom rosy, every one.
Has basked so long beneath the sun,
Her score of peaches great and small
Bloom rosy, every one.
A peach for brothers, one for each,
A peach for you and a peach for me;
But the biggest, rosiest, downiest peach
For Grandmamma with her tea.
A peach for you and a peach for me;
But the biggest, rosiest, downiest peach
For Grandmamma with her tea.
48
[A rose has thorns as well as honey]
A rose has thorns as well as honey,I'll not have her for love or money;
An iris grows so straight and fine,
That she shall be no friend of mine;
Snowdrops like the snow would chill me;
Nightshade would caress and kill me;
Crocus like a spear would fright me;
Dragon's-mouth might bark or bite me;
Convolvulus but blooms to die;
A wind-flower suggests a sigh;
Love-lies-bleeding makes me sad;
And poppy-juice would drive me mad:—
But give me holly, bold and jolly,
Honest, prickly, shining holly;
Pluck me holly leaf and berry
For the day when I make merry.
[Is the moon tired? she looks so pale]
Is the moon tired? she looks so pale
Within her misty veil:
She scales the sky from east to west,
And takes no rest.
Within her misty veil:
She scales the sky from east to west,
And takes no rest.
Before the coming of the night
The moon shows papery white;
Before the dawning of the day
She fades away.
The moon shows papery white;
Before the dawning of the day
She fades away.
[If stars dropped out of heaven]
If stars dropped out of heaven,
And if flowers took their place,
The sky would still look very fair,
And fair earth's face.
And if flowers took their place,
The sky would still look very fair,
And fair earth's face.
Winged Angels might fly down to us
To pluck the stars,
But we could only long for flowers
Beyond the cloudy bars.
To pluck the stars,
But we could only long for flowers
Beyond the cloudy bars.
49
[“Goodbye in fear, goodbye in sorrow]
“Goodbye in fear, goodbye in sorrow,Goodbye, and all in vain,
Never to meet again, my dear—”
“Never to part again.”
“Goodbye today, goodbye tomorrow,
Goodbye till earth shall wane,
Never to meet again, my dear—”
“Never to part again.”
[If the sun could tell us half]
If the sun could tell us halfThat he hears and sees,
Sometimes he would make us laugh,
Sometimes make us cry:
Think of all the birds that make
Homes among the trees;
Think of cruel boys who take
Bird that cannot fly.
[If the moon came from heaven]
If the moon came from heaven,
Talking all the way,
What could she have to tell us,
And what could she say?
Talking all the way,
What could she have to tell us,
And what could she say?
“I've seen a hundred pretty things,
And seen a hundred gay;
But only think: I peep by night
And do not peep by day!”
And seen a hundred gay;
But only think: I peep by night
And do not peep by day!”
[O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east]
O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the east:Shine, be increased;
O Lady Moon, your horns point toward the west:
Wane, be at rest.
[What do the stars do]
What do the stars do
Up in the sky,
Higher than the wind can blow,
Or the clouds can fly?
Up in the sky,
50
Or the clouds can fly?
Each star in its own glory
Circles, circles still;
As it was lit to shine and set,
And do its Maker's Will.
Circles, circles still;
As it was lit to shine and set,
And do its Maker's Will.
[Motherless baby and babyless mother]
Motherless baby and babyless mother,Bring them together to love one another.
[Crimson curtains round my mother's bed]
Crimson curtains round my mother's bed,Silken soft as may be;
Cool white curtains round about my bed,
For I am but a baby.
[Baby lies so fast asleep]
Baby lies so fast asleep
That we cannot wake her:
Will the Angels clad in white
Fly from heaven to take her?
That we cannot wake her:
Will the Angels clad in white
Fly from heaven to take her?
Baby lies so fast asleep
That no pain can grieve her;
Put a snowdrop in her hand,
Kiss her once and leave her.
That no pain can grieve her;
Put a snowdrop in her hand,
Kiss her once and leave her.
[I know a baby, such a baby,—]
I know a baby, such a baby,—
Round blue eyes and cheeks of pink,
Such an elbow furrowed with dimples,
Such a wrist where creases sink.
Round blue eyes and cheeks of pink,
Such an elbow furrowed with dimples,
Such a wrist where creases sink.
“Cuddle and love me, cuddle and love me”
Crows the mouth of coral pink:
Oh the bald head, and oh the sweet lips,
And oh the sleepy eyes that wink!
Crows the mouth of coral pink:
Oh the bald head, and oh the sweet lips,
And oh the sleepy eyes that wink!
51
[Lullaby, oh lullaby!]
Lullaby, oh lullaby!Flowers are closed and lambs are sleeping;
Lullaby, oh lullaby!
Stars are up, the moon is peeping;
Lullaby, oh lullaby!
While the birds are silence keeping,
(Lullaby, oh lullaby!)
Sleep, my baby, fall a-sleeping,
Lullaby, oh lullaby!
[Lie a-bed]
Lie a-bed,Sleepy head,
Shut up eyes, bo-peep;
Till daybreak
Never wake:—
Baby, sleep.
53
II
Poems Added in Sing-Song A Nursery Rhyme Book (1893)
55
[Brownie, Brownie, let down your milk]
Brownie, Brownie, let down your milkWhite as swansdown and smooth as silk,
Fresh as dew and pure as snow:
For I know where the cowslips blow,
And you shall have a cowslip wreath
No sweeter scented than your breath.
[Stroke a flint, and there is nothing to admire]
Stroke a flint, and there is nothing to admire:Strike a flint, and forthwith flash out sparks of fire.
[I am a King]
I am a King,
Or an Emperor rather,
I wear crown-imperial
And prince's-feather;
Golden-rod is the sceptre
I wield and wag,
And a broad purple flag flower
Waves for my flag.
Or an Emperor rather,
I wear crown-imperial
And prince's-feather;
Golden-rod is the sceptre
I wield and wag,
And a broad purple flag flower
Waves for my flag.
Elder the pithy
With old-man and sage,
These are my councillors
Green in old age;
Lords-and-ladies in silence
Stand round me and wait,
While gay ragged-robin
Makes bows at my gate.
With old-man and sage,
These are my councillors
Green in old age;
Lords-and-ladies in silence
Stand round me and wait,
While gay ragged-robin
Makes bows at my gate.
56
[Playing at bob cherry]
Playing at bob cherry
Tom and Nell and Hugh:
Cherry bob! cherry bob!
There's a bob for you.
Tom and Nell and Hugh:
Cherry bob! cherry bob!
There's a bob for you.
Tom bobs a cherry
For gaping snapping Hugh,
While curly-pated Nelly
Snaps at it too.
For gaping snapping Hugh,
While curly-pated Nelly
Snaps at it too.
Look, look, look—
Oh what a sight to see!
The wind is playing cherry bob
With the cherry tree.
Oh what a sight to see!
The wind is playing cherry bob
With the cherry tree.
[Blind from my birth]
Blind from my birth,Where flowers are springing
I sit on earth
All dark.
Hark! hark!
A lark is singing,
His notes are all for me,
For me his mirth:—
Till some day I shall see
Beautiful flowers
And birds in bowers
Where all Joy Bells are ringing.
57
III
A Pageant and Other Poems (1881)
59
[Sonnets are full of love, and this my tome]
Sonnets are full of love, and this my tomeHas many sonnets: so here now shall be
One sonnet more, a love sonnet, from me
To her whose heart is my heart's quiet home,
To my first Love, my Mother, on whose knee
I learnt love-lore that is not troublesome;
Whose service is my special dignity,
And she my loadstar while I go and come.
And so because you love me, and because
I love you, Mother, I have woven a wreath
Of rhymes wherewith to crown your honoured name:
In you not fourscore years can dim the flame
Of love, whose blessed glow transcends the laws
Of time and change and mortal life and death.
THE KEY-NOTE.
Where are the songs I used to know,
Where are the notes I used to sing?
I have forgotten everything
I used to know so long ago;
Summer has followed after Spring;
Now Autumn is so shrunk and sere,
I scarcely think a sadder thing
Can be the Winter of my year.
Where are the notes I used to sing?
I have forgotten everything
I used to know so long ago;
Summer has followed after Spring;
Now Autumn is so shrunk and sere,
I scarcely think a sadder thing
Can be the Winter of my year.
Yet Robin sings thro' Winter's rest,
When bushes put their berries on;
While they their ruddy jewels don,
He sings out of a ruddy breast;
The hips and haws and ruddy breast
Make one spot warm where snowflakes lie,
They break and cheer the unlovely rest
Of Winter's pause—and why not I?
When bushes put their berries on;
While they their ruddy jewels don,
He sings out of a ruddy breast;
60
Make one spot warm where snowflakes lie,
They break and cheer the unlovely rest
Of Winter's pause—and why not I?
THE MONTHS: A PAGEANT.
- Boys.
- January.
- March.
- July.
- August.
- October.
- December.
- Girls.
- February.
- April.
- May.
- June.
- September.
- November.
- Robin Redbreasts; Lambs and Sheep; Nightingale and Nestlings.
- Various Flowers, Fruits, etc.
PERSONIFICATIONS.
[A room in a large comfortable cottage; a fire burning on the hearth; a table on which the breakfast things have been left standing. January discovered seated by the fire.]
JANUARY.
Cold the day and cold the drifted snow,
Dim the day until the cold dark night.
[Stirs the fire.Dim the day until the cold dark night.
Crackle, sparkle, faggot; embers glow:
Some one may be plodding thro' the snow
Longing for a light,
For the light that you and I can show.
If no one else should come,
Here Robin Redbreast's welcome to a crumb,
And never troublesome:
Robin, why don't you come and fetch your crumb?
Some one may be plodding thro' the snow
Longing for a light,
For the light that you and I can show.
If no one else should come,
Here Robin Redbreast's welcome to a crumb,
And never troublesome:
Robin, why don't you come and fetch your crumb?
61
Here's butter for my hunch of bread,
And sugar for your crumb;
Here's room upon the hearthrug,
If you'll only come.
And sugar for your crumb;
Here's room upon the hearthrug,
If you'll only come.
In your scarlet waistcoat,
With your keen bright eye,
Where are you loitering?
Wings were made to fly!
With your keen bright eye,
Where are you loitering?
Wings were made to fly!
Make haste to breakfast,
Come and fetch your crumb,
For I'm as glad to see you
As you are glad to come.
Come and fetch your crumb,
For I'm as glad to see you
As you are glad to come.
[Two Robin Redbreasts are seen tapping with their beaks at the lattice, which January opens. The birds flutter in, hop about the floor, and peck up the crumbs and sugar thrown to them. They have scarcely finished their meal, when a knock is heard at the door. January hangs a guard in front of the fire, and opens to February, who appears with a bunch of snowdrops in her hand.]
JANUARY.
Good-morrow, sister.
FEBRUARY.
Brother, joy to you!
I've brought some snowdrops; only just a few,
But quite enough to prove the world awake,
Cheerful and hopeful in the frosty dew
And for the pale sun's sake.
[She hands a few of her snowdrops to January, who retires into the background. While February stands arranging the remaining snowdrops in a glass of water on the window-sill, a soft butting and bleating are heard outside. She opens the door, and sees one foremost lamb, with other sheep and lambs bleating and crowding towards her.]
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O you, you little wonder, come—come in,
You wonderful, you woolly soft white lamb:
You panting mother ewe, come too,
And lead that tottering twin
Safe in:
Bring all your bleating kith and kin,
Except the horny ram.
[February opens a second door in the background, and
the little flock files thro' into a warm and sheltered
compartment out of sight.]You wonderful, you woolly soft white lamb:
You panting mother ewe, come too,
And lead that tottering twin
Safe in:
Bring all your bleating kith and kin,
Except the horny ram.
The lambkin tottering in its walk
With just a fleece to wear;
The snowdrop drooping on its stalk
So slender,—
Snowdrop and lamb, a pretty pair,
Braving the cold for our delight,
Both white,
Both tender.
[A rattling of doors and windows; branches seen without,
tossing violently to and fro.]With just a fleece to wear;
The snowdrop drooping on its stalk
So slender,—
Snowdrop and lamb, a pretty pair,
Braving the cold for our delight,
Both white,
Both tender.
How the doors rattle, and the branches sway!
Here's brother March comes whirling on his way
With winds that eddy and sing:—
Here's brother March comes whirling on his way
With winds that eddy and sing:—
[She turns the handle of the door, which bursts open, and discloses March hastening up, both hands full of violets and anemones.]
FEBRUARY.
Come, show me what you bring;
For I have said my say, fulfilled my day,
And must away.
MARCH.
[Stopping short on the threshold.]
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I blow an arouse
Thro' the world's wide house
To quicken the torpid earth:
Grappling I fling
Each feeble thing,
But bring strong life to the birth.
I wrestle and frown,
And topple down;
I wrench, I rend, I uproot;
Yet the violet
Is born where I set
The sole of my flying foot,
[Hands violets and anemones to February, who retires into the background.]Thro' the world's wide house
To quicken the torpid earth:
Grappling I fling
Each feeble thing,
But bring strong life to the birth.
I wrestle and frown,
And topple down;
I wrench, I rend, I uproot;
Yet the violet
Is born where I set
The sole of my flying foot,
And in my wake
Frail windflowers quake,
And the catkins promise fruit.
I drive ocean ashore
With rush and roar,
And he cannot say me nay:
My harpstrings all
Are the forests tall,
Making music when I play.
And as others perforce,
So I on my course
Run and needs must run,
With sap on the mount
And buds past count
And rivers and clouds and sun,
With seasons and breath
And time and death
And all that has yet begun.
Frail windflowers quake,
And the catkins promise fruit.
I drive ocean ashore
With rush and roar,
And he cannot say me nay:
My harpstrings all
Are the forests tall,
Making music when I play.
And as others perforce,
So I on my course
Run and needs must run,
With sap on the mount
And buds past count
And rivers and clouds and sun,
With seasons and breath
And time and death
And all that has yet begun.
[Before March has done speaking, a voice is heard approaching accompanied by a twittering of birds. April comes along singing, and stands outside and out of sight to finish her song.]
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[Outside.]
Pretty little three
Sparrows in a tree,
Light upon the wing;
Tho' you cannot sing
You can chirp of Spring:
Chirp of Spring to me,
Sparrows, from your tree.
Sparrows in a tree,
Light upon the wing;
Tho' you cannot sing
You can chirp of Spring:
Chirp of Spring to me,
Sparrows, from your tree.
Never mind the showers,
Chirp about the flowers
While you build a nest:
Straws from east and west,
Feathers from your breast,
Make the snuggest bowers
In a world of flowers.
Chirp about the flowers
While you build a nest:
Straws from east and west,
Feathers from your breast,
Make the snuggest bowers
In a world of flowers.
You must dart away
From the chosen spray,
You intrusive third
Extra little bird;
Join the unwedded herd!
These have done with play,
And must work today.
From the chosen spray,
You intrusive third
Extra little bird;
Join the unwedded herd!
These have done with play,
And must work today.
APRIL.
[Appearing at the open door.]
Good-morrow and good-bye: if others fly,
Of all the flying months you're the most flying.
MARCH.
You're hope and sweetness, April.
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Birth means dying,
As wings and wind mean flying;
So you and I and all things fly or die;
And sometimes I sit sighing to think of dying.
But meanwhile I've a rainbow in my showers,
And a lapful of flowers,
And these dear nestlings aged three hours;
And here's their mother sitting,
Their father's merely flitting
To find their breakfast somewhere in my bowers.
[As she speaks April shows March her apron full of flowers and nest full of birds. March wanders away into the grounds. April, without entering the cottage, hangs over the hungry nestlings watching them.]
APRIL.
What beaks you have, you funny things,
What voices shrill and weak;
Who'd think that anything that sings
Could sing thro' such a beak?
Yet you'll be nightingales one day,
And charm the country side,
When I'm away and far away
And May is queen and bride.
[May arrives unperceived by April, and gives her a kiss. April starts and looks round.]
APRIL.
Ah May, good-morrow May, and so good-bye.
MAY.
That's just your way, sweet April, smile and sigh:
Your sorrow's half in fun,
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And turned to joy while twenty seconds run.
I've gathered flowers all as I came along,
At every step a flower
Fed by your last bright shower,—
[She divides an armful of all sorts of flowers with April, who strolls away thro' the garden.]
MAY.
And gathering flowers I listened to the song
Of every bird in bower.
Of every bird in bower.
The world and I are far too full of bliss
To think or plan or toil or care;
The sun is waxing strong,
The days are waxing long,
And all that is,
Is fair.
To think or plan or toil or care;
The sun is waxing strong,
The days are waxing long,
And all that is,
Is fair.
Here are my buds of lily and of rose,
And here's my namesake blossom may;
And from a watery spot
See here forget-me-not,
With all that blows
Today.
And here's my namesake blossom may;
And from a watery spot
See here forget-me-not,
With all that blows
Today.
Hark to my linnets from the hedges green,
Blackbird and lark and thrush and dove,
And every nightingale
And cuckoo tells its tale,
And all they mean
Is love.
Blackbird and lark and thrush and dove,
And every nightingale
And cuckoo tells its tale,
And all they mean
Is love.
[June appears at the further end of the garden, coming slowly towards May, who, seeing her, exclaims]
MAY.
Surely you're come too early, sister June.
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Indeed I feel as if I came too soon
To round your young May moon
And set the world a-gasping at my noon.
Yet come I must. So here are strawberries
Sun-flushed and sweet, as many as you please;
And here are full-blown roses by the score,
More roses, and yet more.
[May, eating strawberries, withdraws among the flower beds.]
JUNE.
The sun does all my long day's work for me,
Raises and ripens everything;
I need but sit beneath a leafy tree
And watch and sing.
[Seats herself in the shadow of a laburnum.Raises and ripens everything;
I need but sit beneath a leafy tree
And watch and sing.
Or if I'm lulled by note of bird and bee,
Or lulled by noontide's silence deep,
I need but nestle down beneath my tree
And drop asleep.
Or lulled by noontide's silence deep,
I need but nestle down beneath my tree
And drop asleep.
[June falls asleep; and is not awakened by the voice of July, who behind the scenes is heard half singing, half calling.]
JULY.
[Behind the scenes.]
Blue flags, yellow flags, flags all freckled,
Which will you take? yellow, blue, speckled!
Take which you will, speckled, blue, yellow,
Each in its way has not a fellow.
[Enter July, a basket of many-coloured irises slung upon his shoulders, a bunch of ripe grass in one hand, and a plate piled full of peaches balanced upon the other. He steals up to June, and tickles her with the grass. She wakes.]
68
What, here already?
JULY.
Nay, my tryst is kept;
The longest day slipped by you while you slept.
I've brought you one curved pyramid of bloom, [Hands her the plate.
Not flowers but peaches, gathered where the bees,
As downy, bask and boom
In sunshine and in gloom of trees.
But get you in, a storm is at my heels;
The whirlwind whistles and wheels,
Lightning flashes and thunder peals,
Flying and following hard upon my heels.
[June takes shelter in a thickly-woven arbour.]
JULY.
The roar of a storm sweeps up
From the east to the lurid west,
The darkening sky, like a cup,
Is filled with rain to the brink;
The sky is purple and fire,
Blackness and noise and unrest;
The earth, parched with desire,
Opens her mouth to drink.
From the east to the lurid west,
The darkening sky, like a cup,
Is filled with rain to the brink;
The sky is purple and fire,
Blackness and noise and unrest;
The earth, parched with desire,
Opens her mouth to drink.
Send forth thy thunder and fire,
Turn over thy brimming cup,
O sky, appease the desire
Of earth in her parched unrest;
Pour out drink to her thrist,
Her famishing life lift up;
Make thyself fair as at first,
With a rainbow for thy crest.
Turn over thy brimming cup,
O sky, appease the desire
Of earth in her parched unrest;
Pour out drink to her thrist,
Her famishing life lift up;
Make thyself fair as at first,
With a rainbow for thy crest.
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Have done with thunder and fire,
O sky with the rainbow crest;
O earth, have done with desire,
Drink, and drink deep, and rest.
O sky with the rainbow crest;
O earth, have done with desire,
Drink, and drink deep, and rest.
[Enter August, carrying a sheaf made up of different kinds of grain.]
JULY.
Hail, brother August, flushed and warm
And scatheless from my storm.
Your hands are full of corn, I see,
As full as hands can be:
And earth and air both smell as sweet as balm
In their recovered calm,
And that they owe to me.
[July retires into a shrubbery.]
AUGUST.
Wheat sways heavy, oats are airy,
Barley bows a graceful head,
Short and small shoots up canary,
Each of these is some one's bread;
Bread for man or bread for beast,
Or at very least
A bird's savoury feast.
Barley bows a graceful head,
Short and small shoots up canary,
Each of these is some one's bread;
Bread for man or bread for beast,
Or at very least
A bird's savoury feast.
Men are brethren of each other,
One in flesh and one in food;
And a sort of foster brother
Is the litter, or the brood,
Of that folk in fur or feather,
Who, with men together,
Breast the wind and weather.
One in flesh and one in food;
And a sort of foster brother
Is the litter, or the brood,
Of that folk in fur or feather,
Who, with men together,
Breast the wind and weather.
[August descries September toiling across the lawn.]
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My harvest home is ended; and I spy
September drawing nigh
With the first thought of Autumn in her eye,
And the first sigh
Of Autumn wind among her locks that fly.
[September arrives, carrying upon her head a basket heaped high with fruit.]
SEPTEMBER.
Unload me, brother. I have brought a few
Plums and these pears for you,
A dozen kinds of apples, one or two
Melons, some figs all bursting thro'
Their skins, and pearled with dew
These damsons violet-blue.
[While September is speaking, August lifts the basket to the ground, selects various fruits, and withdraws slowly along the gravel walk, eating a pear as he goes.]
SEPTEMBER.
My song is half a sigh
Because my green leaves die;
Sweet are my fruits, but all my leaves are dying;
And well may Autumn sigh,
And well may I
Who watch the sere leaves flying.
Because my green leaves die;
Sweet are my fruits, but all my leaves are dying;
And well may Autumn sigh,
And well may I
Who watch the sere leaves flying.
My leaves that fade and fall,
I note you one and all;
I call you, and the Autumn wind is calling,
Lamenting for your fall,
And for the pall
You spread on earth in falling.
I note you one and all;
I call you, and the Autumn wind is calling,
Lamenting for your fall,
And for the pall
You spread on earth in falling.
And here's a song of flowers to suit such hours:
A song of the last lilies, the last flowers,
Amid my withering bowers.
In the sunny garden bed
Lilies look so pale,
Lilies droop the head
In the shady grassy vale;
If all alike they pine
In shade and in shine,
If everywhere they grieve,
Where will lilies live?
A song of the last lilies, the last flowers,
Amid my withering bowers.
71
Lilies look so pale,
Lilies droop the head
In the shady grassy vale;
If all alike they pine
In shade and in shine,
If everywhere they grieve,
Where will lilies live?
[October enters briskly, some leafy twigs bearing different sorts of nuts in one hand, and a long ripe hop-bine trailing after him from the other. A dahlia is stuck in his bottonhole.]
OCTOBER.
Nay, cheer up sister. Life is not quite over,
Even if the year has done with corn and clover,
With flowers and leaves; besides, in fact it's true,
Some leaves remain and some flowers too,
For me and you.
Now see my crops: [Offering his produce to September.
I've brought you nuts and hops;
And when the leaf drops, why, the walnut drops.
[October wreaths the hop-bine about September's neck, and gives her the nut twigs. They enter the cottage together, but without shutting the door. She steps into the background: he advances to the hearth, removes the guard, stirs up the smouldering fire, and arranges several chestnuts ready to roast.]
OCTOBER.
Crack your first nut and light your first fire,
Roast your first chestnut crisp on the bar;
Make the logs sparkle, stir the blaze higher,
Logs are cheery as sun or as star,
Logs we can find wherever we are.
72
Spring one bright day will lure back the flowers;
Never fancy my whistling wind grieves,
Never fancy I've tears in my showers;
Dance, nights and days! and dance on, my hours!
[Sees November approaching.
OCTOBER.
Here comes my youngest sister, looking dim
And grim,
With dismal ways.
What cheer, November?
NOVEMBER.
[Entering and shutting the door.]
Nought have I to bring
Tramping a-chill and shivering,
Except these pine-cones for a blaze,—
Except a fog which follows,
And stuffs up all the hollows,—
Except a hoar frost here and there,—
Except some shooting stars
Which dart their luminous cars
Trackless and noiseless thro' the keen night air.
[October, shrugging his shoulders, withdraws into the background, while November throws her pine cones on the fire, and sits down listlessly.]
NOVEMBER.
The earth lies fast asleep, grown tired
Of all that's high or deep;
There's nought desired and nought required
Save a sleep.
Of all that's high or deep;
There's nought desired and nought required
Save a sleep.
I rock the cradle of the earth,
I lull her with a sigh;
And know that she will wake to mirth
By and by.
I lull her with a sigh;
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By and by.
[Thro' the window December is seen running and leaping in the direction of the door. He knocks.]
NOVEMBER.
[Calls out without rising.]
Ah, here's my youngest brother come at last:
Come in, December.
[He opens the door and enters, loaded with evergreens in berry, etc.]
NOVEMBER.
Come, and shut the door,
For now it's snowing fast;
It snows, and will snow more and more;
Don't let it drift in on the floor.
But you, you're all aglow; how can you be
Rosy and warm and smiling in the cold?
DECEMBER.
Nay, no closed doors for me,
But open doors and open hearts and glee
To welcome young and old.
Dimmest and brightest month am I;
My short days end, my lengthening days begin;
What matters more or less sun in the sky,
When all is sun within?
[He begins making a wreath as he sings.But open doors and open hearts and glee
To welcome young and old.
Dimmest and brightest month am I;
My short days end, my lengthening days begin;
What matters more or less sun in the sky,
When all is sun within?
Ivy and privet dark as night,
I weave with hips and haws a cheerful show,
And holly for a beauty and delight,
And milky mistletoe.
While high above them all I set
Yew twigs and Christmas roses pure and pale;
Then Spring her snowdrop and her violet
May keep, so sweet and frail;
I weave with hips and haws a cheerful show,
And holly for a beauty and delight,
And milky mistletoe.
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Yew twigs and Christmas roses pure and pale;
Then Spring her snowdrop and her violet
May keep, so sweet and frail;
May keep each merry singing bird,
Of all her happy birds that singing build:
For I've a carol which some shepherds heard
Once in a wintry field.
Of all her happy birds that singing build:
For I've a carol which some shepherds heard
Once in a wintry field.
[While December concludes his song all the other Months troop in from the garden, or advance out of the background. The Twelve join hands in a circle, and begin dancing round to a stately measure as the Curtain falls.]
PASTIME.
A boat amid the ripples, drifting, rocking,
Two idle people, without pause or aim;
While in the ominous west there gathers darkness
Flushed with flame.
Two idle people, without pause or aim;
While in the ominous west there gathers darkness
Flushed with flame.
A haycock in a hayfield backing, lapping,
Two drowsy people pillowed round about;
While in the ominous west across the darkness
Flame leaps out.
Two drowsy people pillowed round about;
While in the ominous west across the darkness
Flame leaps out.
Better a wrecked life than a life so aimless,
Better a wrecked life than a life so soft;
The ominous west glooms thundering, with its fire
Lit aloft.
Better a wrecked life than a life so soft;
The ominous west glooms thundering, with its fire
Lit aloft.
“ITALIA, IO TI SALUTO!”
To come back from the sweet South, to the North
Where I was born, bred, look to die;
Come back to do my day's work in its day,
Play out my play—
Amen, amen, say I.
Where I was born, bred, look to die;
Come back to do my day's work in its day,
Play out my play—
Amen, amen, say I.
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To see no more the country half my own,
Nor hear the half familiar speech,
Amen, I say; I turn to that bleak North
Whence I came forth—
The South lies out of reach.
Nor hear the half familiar speech,
Amen, I say; I turn to that bleak North
Whence I came forth—
The South lies out of reach.
But when our swallows fly back to the South,
To the sweet South, to the sweet South,
The tears may come again into my eyes
On the old wise,
And the sweet name to my mouth.
To the sweet South, to the sweet South,
The tears may come again into my eyes
On the old wise,
And the sweet name to my mouth.
MIRRORS OF LIFE AND DEATH.
The mystery of Life, the mystery
Of Death, I see
Darkly as in a glass;
Their shadows pass,
And talk with me.
Of Death, I see
Darkly as in a glass;
Their shadows pass,
And talk with me.
As the flush of a Morning Sky,
As a Morning Sky colourless—
Each yields its measure of light
To a wet world or a dry;
Each fares thro' day to night
With equal pace,
And then each one
Is done.
As a Morning Sky colourless—
Each yields its measure of light
To a wet world or a dry;
Each fares thro' day to night
With equal pace,
And then each one
Is done.
As the Sun with glory and grace
In his face,
Benignantly hot,
Graciously radiant and keen,
Ready to rise and to run,—
Not without spot,
Not even the Sun.
In his face,
Benignantly hot,
Graciously radiant and keen,
Ready to rise and to run,—
Not without spot,
Not even the Sun.
As the Moon
On the wax, on the wane,
With night for her noon;
Vanishing soon,
To appear again.
On the wax, on the wane,
With night for her noon;
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To appear again.
As Roses that droop
Half warm, half chill, in the languid May,
And breathe out a scent
Sweet and faint;
Till the wind gives one swoop
To scatter their beauty away.
Half warm, half chill, in the languid May,
And breathe out a scent
Sweet and faint;
Till the wind gives one swoop
To scatter their beauty away.
As Lilies a multitude,
One dipping, one rising, one sinking,
On rippling waters, clear blue
And pure for their drinking;
One new dead, and one opened anew,
And all good.
One dipping, one rising, one sinking,
On rippling waters, clear blue
And pure for their drinking;
One new dead, and one opened anew,
And all good.
As a cankered pale Flower,
With death for a dower,
Each hour of its life half dead;
With death for a crown
Weighing down
Its head.
With death for a dower,
Each hour of its life half dead;
With death for a crown
Weighing down
Its head.
As an Eagle, half strength and half grace,
Most potent to face
Unwinking the splendour of light;
Harrying the East and the West,
Soaring aloft from our sight;
Yet one day or one night dropped to rest,
On the low common earth
Of his birth.
Most potent to face
Unwinking the splendour of light;
Harrying the East and the West,
Soaring aloft from our sight;
Yet one day or one night dropped to rest,
On the low common earth
Of his birth.
As a Dove,
Not alone,
In a world of her own
Full of fluttering soft noises
And tender sweet voices
Of love.
Not alone,
In a world of her own
Full of fluttering soft noises
And tender sweet voices
Of love.
As a Mouse
Keeping house
In the fork of a tree,
With nuts in a crevice,
And an acorn or two;
What cares he
For blossoming boughs,
Or the song-singing bevies
Of birds in their glee,
Scarlet, or golden, or blue?
Keeping house
77
With nuts in a crevice,
And an acorn or two;
What cares he
For blossoming boughs,
Or the song-singing bevies
Of birds in their glee,
Scarlet, or golden, or blue?
As a Mole grubbing underground;
When it comes to the light
It grubs its way back again,
Feeling no bias of fur
To hamper it in its stir,
Scant of pleasure and pain,
Sinking itself out of sight
Without sound.
When it comes to the light
It grubs its way back again,
Feeling no bias of fur
To hamper it in its stir,
Scant of pleasure and pain,
Sinking itself out of sight
Without sound.
As Waters that drop and drop,
Weariness without end,
That drop and never stop,
Wear that nothing can mend,
Till one day they drop—
Stop—
And there's an end,
And matters mend.
Weariness without end,
That drop and never stop,
Wear that nothing can mend,
Till one day they drop—
Stop—
And there's an end,
And matters mend.
As Trees, beneath whose skin
We mark not the sap begin
To swell and rise,
Till the whole bursts out in green:
We mark the falling leaves
When the wide world grieves
And sighs.
We mark not the sap begin
To swell and rise,
Till the whole bursts out in green:
We mark the falling leaves
When the wide world grieves
And sighs.
As a Forest on fire,
Where maddened creatures desire
Wet mud or wings
Beyond all those things
Which could assauge desire
On this side the flaming fire.
Where maddened creatures desire
Wet mud or wings
Beyond all those things
Which could assauge desire
On this side the flaming fire.
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As Wind with a sob and sigh
To which there comes no reply
But a rustle and shiver
From rushes of the river;
As Wind with a desolate moan,
Moaning on alone.
To which there comes no reply
But a rustle and shiver
From rushes of the river;
As Wind with a desolate moan,
Moaning on alone.
As a Desert all sand,
Blank, neither water nor land
For solace, or dwelling, or culture,
Where the storms and the wild creatures howl;
Given over to lion and vulture,
To ostrich, and jackal, and owl:
Yet somewhere an oasis lies;
There waters arise
To nourish one seedling of balm,
Perhaps, or one palm.
Blank, neither water nor land
For solace, or dwelling, or culture,
Where the storms and the wild creatures howl;
Given over to lion and vulture,
To ostrich, and jackal, and owl:
Yet somewhere an oasis lies;
There waters arise
To nourish one seedling of balm,
Perhaps, or one palm.
As the Sea,
Murmuring, shifting, swaying;
One time sunnily playing,
One time wrecking and slaying;
In whichever mood it be,
Worst or best,
Never at rest.
Murmuring, shifting, swaying;
One time sunnily playing,
One time wrecking and slaying;
In whichever mood it be,
Worst or best,
Never at rest.
As still Waters and deep,
As shallow Waters that brawl,
As rapid Waters that leap
To their fall.
As shallow Waters that brawl,
As rapid Waters that leap
To their fall.
As Music, as Colour, as Shape,
Keys of rapture and pain
Turning in vain
In a lock which turns not again,
While breaths and moments escape.
Keys of rapture and pain
Turning in vain
In a lock which turns not again,
While breaths and moments escape.
As Spring, all bloom and desire;
As Summer, all gift and fire;
As Autumn, a dying glow;
As Winter, with nought to show:
Winter which lays its dead all out of sight,
All clothed in white,
All waiting for the long-awaited light.
As Summer, all gift and fire;
As Autumn, a dying glow;
As Winter, with nought to show:
79
All clothed in white,
All waiting for the long-awaited light.
A BALLAD OF BODING.
There are sleeping dreams and waking dreams;
What seems is not always as it seems.
What seems is not always as it seems.
I looked out of my window in the sweet new morning,
And there I saw three barges of manifold adorning
Went sailing toward the East:
The first had sails like fire,
The next like glittering wire,
But sackcloth were the sails of the least;
And all the crews made music, and two had spread a feast.
And there I saw three barges of manifold adorning
Went sailing toward the East:
The first had sails like fire,
The next like glittering wire,
But sackcloth were the sails of the least;
And all the crews made music, and two had spread a feast.
The first choir breathed in flutes,
And fingered soft guitars;
The second won from lutes
Harmonious chords and jars,
With drums for stormy bars:
But the third was all of harpers and scarlet trumpters;
Notes of triumph, then
An alarm again,
As for onset, as for victory, rallies, stirs,
Peace at last and glory to the vanquishers.
And fingered soft guitars;
The second won from lutes
Harmonious chords and jars,
With drums for stormy bars:
But the third was all of harpers and scarlet trumpters;
Notes of triumph, then
An alarm again,
As for onset, as for victory, rallies, stirs,
Peace at last and glory to the vanquishers.
The first barge showed for figurehead a Love with wings;
The second showed for figurehead a Worm with stings;
The third, a Lily tangled to a Rose which clings.
The first bore for freight gold and spice and down;
The second bore a sword, a sceptre, and a crown;
The third, a heap of earth gone to dust and brown.
Winged Love meseemed like Folly in the face;
Stinged Worm meseemed loathly in his place;
Lily and Rose were flowers of grace.
The second showed for figurehead a Worm with stings;
The third, a Lily tangled to a Rose which clings.
The first bore for freight gold and spice and down;
The second bore a sword, a sceptre, and a crown;
The third, a heap of earth gone to dust and brown.
Winged Love meseemed like Folly in the face;
Stinged Worm meseemed loathly in his place;
Lily and Rose were flowers of grace.
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Merry went the revel of the fire-sailed crew,
Singing, feasting, dancing to and fro:
Pleasures ever changing, ever graceful, ever new;
Sighs, but scarce of woe;
All the sighing
Wooed such sweet replying;
All the sighing, sweet and low,
Used to come and go
For more pleasure, merely so.
Yet at intervals some one grew tired
Of everything desired,
And sank, I knew not whither, in sorry plight,
Out of sight.
Singing, feasting, dancing to and fro:
Pleasures ever changing, ever graceful, ever new;
Sighs, but scarce of woe;
All the sighing
Wooed such sweet replying;
All the sighing, sweet and low,
Used to come and go
For more pleasure, merely so.
Yet at intervals some one grew tired
Of everything desired,
And sank, I knew not whither, in sorry plight,
Out of sight.
The second crew seemed ever
Wider-visioned, graver,
More distinct of purpose, more sustained of will;
With heads erect and proud,
And voices sometimes loud;
With endless tacking, counter-tacking,
All things grasping, all things lacking,
It would seem;
Ever shifting helm, or sail, or shroud,
Drifting on as in a dream.
Hoarding to their utmost bent,
Feasting to their fill,
Yet gnawed by discontent,
Envy, hatred, malice, on their road they went.
Their freight was not a treasure,
Their music not a pleasure;
The sword flashed, cleaving thro' their bands,
Sceptre and crown changed hands.
Wider-visioned, graver,
More distinct of purpose, more sustained of will;
With heads erect and proud,
And voices sometimes loud;
With endless tacking, counter-tacking,
All things grasping, all things lacking,
It would seem;
Ever shifting helm, or sail, or shroud,
Drifting on as in a dream.
Hoarding to their utmost bent,
Feasting to their fill,
Yet gnawed by discontent,
Envy, hatred, malice, on their road they went.
Their freight was not a treasure,
Their music not a pleasure;
The sword flashed, cleaving thro' their bands,
Sceptre and crown changed hands.
The third crew as they went
Seemed mostly different;
They toiled in rowing, for to them the wind was contrary,
As all the world might see.
They laboured at the oar,
While on their heads they bore
The fiery stress of sunshine more and more.
They laboured at the oar hand-sore,
Till rain went splashing,
And spray went dashing,
Down on them, and up on them, more and more.
Their sails were patched and rent,
Their masts were bent,
In peril of their lives they worked and went.
For them no feast was spread,
No soft luxurious bed
Scented and white,
No crown or sceptre hung in sight;
In weariness and painfulness,
In thirst and sore distress,
They rowed and steered from left to right
With all their might.
Their trumpeters and harpers round about
Incessantly played out,
And sometimes they made answer with a shout;
But oftener they groaned or wept,
And seldom paused to eat, and seldom slept.
I wept for pity watching them, but more
I wept heart-sore
Once and again to see
Some weary man plunge overboard, and swim
To Love or Worm ship floating buoyantly:
And there all welcomed him.
Seemed mostly different;
They toiled in rowing, for to them the wind was contrary,
As all the world might see.
They laboured at the oar,
While on their heads they bore
The fiery stress of sunshine more and more.
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Till rain went splashing,
And spray went dashing,
Down on them, and up on them, more and more.
Their sails were patched and rent,
Their masts were bent,
In peril of their lives they worked and went.
For them no feast was spread,
No soft luxurious bed
Scented and white,
No crown or sceptre hung in sight;
In weariness and painfulness,
In thirst and sore distress,
They rowed and steered from left to right
With all their might.
Their trumpeters and harpers round about
Incessantly played out,
And sometimes they made answer with a shout;
But oftener they groaned or wept,
And seldom paused to eat, and seldom slept.
I wept for pity watching them, but more
I wept heart-sore
Once and again to see
Some weary man plunge overboard, and swim
To Love or Worm ship floating buoyantly:
And there all welcomed him.
The ships steered each apart and seemed to scorn each other,
Yet all the crews were interchangeable;
Now one man, now another,
—Like bloodless spectres some, some flushed by health,—
Changed openly, or changed by stealth,
Scaling a slippery side, and scaled it well.
The most left Love ship, hauling wealth
Up Worm ship's side;
While some few hollow-eyed
Left either for the sack-sailed boat;
But this, tho' not remote,
Was worst to mount, and whoso left it once
Scarce ever came again,
But seemed to loathe his erst companions,
And wish and work them bane.
Yet all the crews were interchangeable;
Now one man, now another,
—Like bloodless spectres some, some flushed by health,—
Changed openly, or changed by stealth,
Scaling a slippery side, and scaled it well.
The most left Love ship, hauling wealth
Up Worm ship's side;
While some few hollow-eyed
Left either for the sack-sailed boat;
But this, tho' not remote,
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Scarce ever came again,
But seemed to loathe his erst companions,
And wish and work them bane.
Then I knew (I know not how) there lurked quicksands full of dread,
Rocks and reefs and whirlpools in the water bed,
Whence a waterspout
Instantaneously leaped out,
Roaring as it reared its head.
Soon I spied a something dim,
Many-handed, grim,
That went flitting to and fro the first and second ship;
It puffed their sails full out
With puffs of smoky breath
From a smouldering lip,
And cleared the waterspout
Which reeled roaring round about
Threatening death.
With a horny hand it steered,
And a horn appeared
On its sneering head upreared
Haughty and high
Against the blackening lowering sky.
With a hoof it swayed the waves;
They opened here and there,
Till I spied deep ocean graves
Full of skeletons
That were men and women once
Foul or fair;
Full of things that creep
And fester in the deep
And never breathe the clean life-nurturing air.
Rocks and reefs and whirlpools in the water bed,
Whence a waterspout
Instantaneously leaped out,
Roaring as it reared its head.
Soon I spied a something dim,
Many-handed, grim,
That went flitting to and fro the first and second ship;
It puffed their sails full out
With puffs of smoky breath
From a smouldering lip,
And cleared the waterspout
Which reeled roaring round about
Threatening death.
With a horny hand it steered,
And a horn appeared
On its sneering head upreared
Haughty and high
Against the blackening lowering sky.
With a hoof it swayed the waves;
They opened here and there,
Till I spied deep ocean graves
Full of skeletons
That were men and women once
Foul or fair;
Full of things that creep
And fester in the deep
And never breathe the clean life-nurturing air.
The third bark held aloof
From the Monster with the hoof,
Despite his urgent beck,
And fraught with guile
Abominable his smile;
Till I saw him take a flying leap on to that deck.
Then full of awe,
With these same eyes I saw
His head incredible retract its horn
Rounding like babe's new born,
While silvery phosphorescence played
About his dis-horned head.
The sneer smoothed from his lip,
He beamed blandly on the ship;
All winds sank to a moan,
All waves to a monotone
(For all these seemed his realm),
While he laid a strong caressing hand upon the helm.
From the Monster with the hoof,
Despite his urgent beck,
And fraught with guile
Abominable his smile;
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Then full of awe,
With these same eyes I saw
His head incredible retract its horn
Rounding like babe's new born,
While silvery phosphorescence played
About his dis-horned head.
The sneer smoothed from his lip,
He beamed blandly on the ship;
All winds sank to a moan,
All waves to a monotone
(For all these seemed his realm),
While he laid a strong caressing hand upon the helm.
Then a cry well nigh of despair
Shrieked to heaven, a clamour of desperate prayer.
The harpers harped no more,
While the trumpeters sounded sore,
An alarm to wake the dead from their bed:
To the rescue, to the rescue, now or never,
To the rescue, O ye living, O ye dead,
Or no more help or hope for ever!—
The planks strained as tho' they must part asunder,
The masts bent as tho' they must dip under,
And the winds and the waves at length
Girt up their strength,
And the depths were laid bare,
And heaven flashed fire and volleyed thunder
Thro' the rain-choked air,
And sea and sky seemed to kiss
In the horror and the hiss
Of the whole world shuddering everywhere.
Shrieked to heaven, a clamour of desperate prayer.
The harpers harped no more,
While the trumpeters sounded sore,
An alarm to wake the dead from their bed:
To the rescue, to the rescue, now or never,
To the rescue, O ye living, O ye dead,
Or no more help or hope for ever!—
The planks strained as tho' they must part asunder,
The masts bent as tho' they must dip under,
And the winds and the waves at length
Girt up their strength,
And the depths were laid bare,
And heaven flashed fire and volleyed thunder
Thro' the rain-choked air,
And sea and sky seemed to kiss
In the horror and the hiss
Of the whole world shuddering everywhere.
Lo! a Flyer swooping down
With wings to span the globe,
And splendour for his robe
And splendour for his crown.
He lighted on the helm with a foot of fire,
And spun the Monster overboard:
And that monstrous thing abhorred,
Gnashing with balked desire,
Wriggled like a worm infirm
Up the Worm
Of the loathly figurehead.
There he crouched and gnashed;
And his head re-horned, and gashed
From the other's grapple, dripped bloody red.
With wings to span the globe,
And splendour for his robe
And splendour for his crown.
He lighted on the helm with a foot of fire,
And spun the Monster overboard:
And that monstrous thing abhorred,
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Wriggled like a worm infirm
Up the Worm
Of the loathly figurehead.
There he crouched and gnashed;
And his head re-horned, and gashed
From the other's grapple, dripped bloody red.
I saw that thing accurst
Wreak his worst
On the first and second crew:
Some with baited hook
He angled for and took,
Some dragged overboard in a net he threw,
Some he did to death
With hoof or horn or blasting breath.
Wreak his worst
On the first and second crew:
Some with baited hook
He angled for and took,
Some dragged overboard in a net he threw,
Some he did to death
With hoof or horn or blasting breath.
I heard a voice of wailing
Where the ships went sailing,
A sorrowful voice prevailing
Above the sound of the sea,
Above the singers' voices,
And musical merry noises;
All songs had turned to sighing,
The light was failing,
The day was dying—
Ah me,
That such a sorrow should be!
Where the ships went sailing,
A sorrowful voice prevailing
Above the sound of the sea,
Above the singers' voices,
And musical merry noises;
All songs had turned to sighing,
The light was failing,
The day was dying—
Ah me,
That such a sorrow should be!
There was sorrow on the sea and sorrow on the land
When Love ship went down by the bottomless quicksand
To its grave in the bitter wave.
There was sorrow on the sea and sorrow on the land
When Worm ship went to pieces on the rock-bound strand,
And the bitter wave was its grave.
But land and sea waxed hoary
In whiteness of a glory
Never told in story
Nor seen by mortal eye,
When the third ship crossed the bar
Where whirls and breakers are,
And steered into the splendours of the sky;
That third bark and that least
Which had never seemed to feast,
Yet kept high festival above sun and moon and star.
When Love ship went down by the bottomless quicksand
To its grave in the bitter wave.
There was sorrow on the sea and sorrow on the land
When Worm ship went to pieces on the rock-bound strand,
And the bitter wave was its grave.
But land and sea waxed hoary
In whiteness of a glory
Never told in story
Nor seen by mortal eye,
When the third ship crossed the bar
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And steered into the splendours of the sky;
That third bark and that least
Which had never seemed to feast,
Yet kept high festival above sun and moon and star.
YET A LITTLE WHILE.
I dreamed and did not seek: today I seek
Who can no longer dream;
But now am all behindhand, waxen weak,
And dazed amid so many things that gleam
Yet are not what they seem.
Who can no longer dream;
But now am all behindhand, waxen weak,
And dazed amid so many things that gleam
Yet are not what they seem.
I dreamed and did not work: today I work
Kept wide awake by care
And loss, and perils dimly guessed to lurk;
I work and reap not, while my life goes bare
And void in wintry air.
Kept wide awake by care
And loss, and perils dimly guessed to lurk;
I work and reap not, while my life goes bare
And void in wintry air.
I hope indeed; but hope itself is fear
Viewed on the sunny side;
I hope, and disregard the world that's here,
The prizes drawn, the sweet things that betide;
I hope, and I abide.
Viewed on the sunny side;
I hope, and disregard the world that's here,
The prizes drawn, the sweet things that betide;
I hope, and I abide.
HE AND SHE.
“Should one of us remember,
And one of us forget,
I wish I knew what each will do—
But who can tell as yet?”
And one of us forget,
I wish I knew what each will do—
But who can tell as yet?”
“Should one of us remember,
And one of us forget,
I promise you what I will do—
And I'm content to wait for you,
And not be sure as yet.”
And one of us forget,
I promise you what I will do—
And I'm content to wait for you,
And not be sure as yet.”
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MONNA INNOMINATA.
A Sonnet Of Sonnets.
[_]
Beatrice, immortalized by “altissimo poeta . . . cotanto amante”; Laura, celebrated by a great tho' an inferior bard,— have alike paid the exceptional penalty of exceptional honour, and have come down to us resplendent with charms, but (at least, to my apprehension) scant of attractiveness.
These heroines of world-wide fame were preceded by a bevy of unnamed ladies “donne innominate” sung by a school of less conspicuous poets; and in that land and that period which gave simultaneous birth to Catholics, to Albigenses, and to Troubadours, one can imagine many a lady as sharing her lover's poetic aptitude, while the barrier between them might be one held sacred by both, yet not such as to render mutual love incompatible with mutual honour.
Had such a lady spoken for herself, the portrait left us might have appeared more tender, if less dignified, than any drawn even by a devoted friend. Or had the Great Poetess of our own day and nation only been unhappy instead of happy, her circumstances would have invited her to bequeath to us, in lieu of the “Portuguese Sonnets,” an inimitable “donna innominata” drawn not from fancy but from feeling, and worthy to occupy a niche beside Beatrice and Laura.
1.
“Lo dì che han detto a' dolci amici addio.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Amor, con quanto sforzo oggi mi vinci!”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
Come back to me, who wait and watch for you:—
Or come not yet, for it is over then,
And long it is before you come again,
So far between my pleasures are and few.
While, when you come not, what I do I do
Thinking “Now when he comes,” my sweetest “when:”
For one man is my world of all the men
This wide world holds; O love, my world is you.
Howbeit, to meet you grows almost a pang
Because the pang of parting comes so soon;
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Between the heavenly days on which we meet:
Ah me, but where are now the songs I sang
When life was sweet because you called them sweet?
2.
“Era già l'ora che volge il desio.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Ricorro al tempo ch'io vi vidi prima.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
I wish I could remember, that first day,
First hour, first moment of your meeting me,
If bright or dim the season, it might be
Summer or Winter for aught I can say;
So unrecorded did it slip away,
So blind was I to see and to foresee,
So dull to mark the budding of my tree
That would not blossom yet for many a May.
If only I could recollect it, such
A day of days! I let it come and go
As traceless as a thaw of bygone snow;
It seemed to mean so little, meant so much;
If only now I could recall that touch,
First touch of hand in hand—Did one but know!
3.
“O ombre vane, fuor che ne l'aspetto!”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Immaginata guida la conduce.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
I dream of you to wake: would that I might
Dream of you and not wake but slumber on;
Nor find with dreams the dear companion gone,
As Summer ended Summer birds take flight.
In happy dreams I hold you full in sight,
I blush again who waking look so wan;
Brighter than sunniest day that ever shone,
In happy dreams your smile makes day of night.
Thus only in a dream we are at one,
Thus only in a dream we give and take
The faith that maketh rich who take or give;
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To die were surely sweeter than to live,
Tho' there be nothing new beneath the sun.
4.
“Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Ogni altra cosa, ogni pensier va fore,
E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore.”
—Petrarca.
E sol ivi con voi rimansi amore.”
—Petrarca.
I loved you first: but afterwards your love
Outsoaring mine, sang such a loftier song
As drowned the friendly cooings of my dove.
Which owes the other most? my love was long,
And yours one moment seemed to wax more strong;
I loved and guessed at you, you construed me
And loved me for what might or might not be—
Nay, weights and measures do us both a wrong.
For verily love knows not “mine” or “thine;”
With separate “I” and “thou” free love has done,
For one is both and both are one in love:
Rich love knows nought of “thine that is not mine;”
Both have the strength and both the length thereof,
Both of us, of the love which makes us one.
5.
“Amor che a nulla amato amar perdona.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Amor m'addusse in sì gioiosa spene.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
O my heart's heart, and you who are to me
More than myself myself, God be with you,
Keep you in strong obedience leal and true
To Him whose noble service setteth free,
Give you all good we see or can foresee,
Make your joys many and your sorrows few,
Bless you in what you bear and what you do,
Yea, perfect you as He would have you be.
So much for you; but what for me, dear friend?
To love you without stint and all I can
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To love you much and yet to love you more,
As Jordan at his flood sweeps either shore;
Since woman is the helpmeet made for man.
6.
“Or puoi la quantitate
Comprender de l'amor che a te mi scalda.”
—Dante.
Comprender de l'amor che a te mi scalda.”
—Dante.
“Non vo'che da tal nodo amor mi scioglia.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
Trust me, I have not earned your dear rebuke,
I love, as you would have me, God the most;
Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,
Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look
Unready to forego what I forsook;
This say I, having counted up the cost,
This, tho' I be the feeblest of God's host,
The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.
Yet while I love my God the most, I deem
That I can never love you overmuch;
I love Him more, so let me love you too;
Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such
I cannot love you if I love not Him,
I cannot love Him if I love not you.
7.
“Qui primavera sempre ed ogni frutto.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Ragionando con meco ed io con lui.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
“Love me, for I love you”—and answer me,
“Love me, for I love you”—so shall we stand
As happy equals in the flowering land
Of love, that knows not a dividing sea.
Love builds the house on rock and not on sand,
Love laughs what while the winds rave desperately;
And who hath found love's citadel unmanned?
And who hath held in bonds love's liberty?
My heart's a coward tho' my words are brave—
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So often; there's a problem for your art!
Still I find comfort in his Book, who saith,
Tho' jealousy be cruel as the grave,
And death be strong, yet love is strong as death.
8.
“Come dicesse a Dio: D'altro non calme.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Spero trovar pietà non che perdono.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
“I, if I perish, perish”—Esther spake:
And bride of life or death she made her fair
In all the lustre of her perfumed hair
And smiles that kindle longing but to slake.
She put on pomp of loveliness, to take
Her husband thro' his eyes at unaware;
She spread abroad her beauty for a snare,
Harmless as doves and subtle as a snake.
She trapped him with one mesh of silken hair,
She vanquished him by wisdom of her wit,
And built her people's house that it should stand:—
If I might take my life so in my hand,
And for my love to Love put up my prayer,
And for love's sake by Love be granted it!
9.
“O dignitosa coscienza e netta!”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Spirto più acceso di virtuti ardenti.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
Thinking of you, and all that was, and all
That might have been and now can never be,
I feel your honoured excellence, and see
Myself unworthy of the happier call:
For woe is me who walk so apt to fall,
So apt to shrink afraid, so apt to flee,
Apt to lie down and die (ah, woe is me!)
Faithless and hopeless turning to the wall.
And yet not hopeless quite nor faithless quite,
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But take at morning; wrestle till the break
Of day, but then wield power with God and man:—
So take I heart of grace as best I can,
Ready to spend and be spent for your sake.
10.
“Con miglior corso e con migliore stella.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“La vita fugge e non s'arresta un' ora.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
Time flies, hope flags, life plies a wearied wing;
Death following hard on life gains ground apace;
Faith runs with each and rears an eager face,
Outruns the rest, makes light of everything,
Spurns earth, and still finds breath to pray and sing;
While love ahead of all uplifts his praise,
Still asks for grace and still gives thanks for grace,
Content with all day brings and night will bring.
Life wanes; and when love folds his wings above
Tired hope, and less we feel his conscious pulse,
Let us go fall asleep, dear friend, in peace:
A little while, and age and sorrow cease;
A little while, and life reborn annuls
Loss and decay and death, and all is love.
11.
“Vien dietro a me e lascia dir le genti.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Contando i casi della vita nostra.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
Many in aftertimes will say of you
“He loved her”—while of me what will they say?
Not that I loved you more than just in play,
For fashion's sake as idle women do.
Even let them prate; who know not what we knew
Of love and parting in exceeding pain,
Of parting hopeless here to meet again,
Hopeless on earth, and heaven is out of view.
But by my heart of love laid bare to you,
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Love that foregoes you but to claim anew
Beyond this passage of the gate of death,
I charge you at the Judgment make it plain
My love of you was life and not a breath.
12.
“Amor, che ne la mente mi ragiona.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Amor vien nel bel viso di costei.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
If there be any one can take my place
And make you happy whom I grieve to grieve,
Think not that I can grudge it, but believe
I do commend you to that nobler grace,
That readier wit than mine, that sweeter face;
Yea, since your riches make me rich, conceive
I too am crowned, while bridal crowns I weave,
And thread the bridal dance with jocund pace.
For if I did not love you, it might be
That I should grudge you some one dear delight;
But since the heart is yours that was mine own,
Your pleasure is my pleasure, right my right,
Your honourable freedom makes me free,
And you companioned I am not alone.
13.
“E drizzeremo glí occhi al Primo Amore.”
—DANTE.
—DANTE.
“Ma trovo peso non da le mie braccia.”
—PETRARCA.
—PETRARCA.
If I could trust mine own self with your fate,
Shall I not rather trust it in God's hand?
Without Whose Will one lily doth not stand,
Nor sparrow fall at his appointed date;
Who numbereth the innumerable sand,
Who weighs the wind and water with a weight,
To Whom the world is neither small nor great,
Whose knowledge foreknew every plan we planned.
Searching my heart for all that touches you,
I find there only love and love's goodwill
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Of understanding dull, of sight most dim;
And therefore I commend you back to Him
Whose love your love's capacity can fill.
14.
“E la Sua Volontade è nostra pace.”
—Dante.
—Dante.
“Sol con questi pensier, con altre chiome.”
—Petrarca.
—Petrarca.
Youth gone, and beauty gone if ever there
Dwelt beauty in so poor a face as this;
Youth gone and beauty, what remains of bliss?
I will not bind fresh roses in my hair,
To shame a cheek at best but little fair,—
Leave youth his roses, who can bear a thorn,—
I will not seek for blossoms anywhere,
Except such common flowers as blow with corn.
Youth gone and beauty gone, what doth remain?
The longing of a heart pent up forlorn,
A silent heart whose silence loves and longs;
The silence of a heart which sang its songs
While youth and beauty made a summer morn,
Silence of love that cannot sing again.
“LUSCIOUS AND SORROWFUL.”
Beautiful, tender, wasting away for sorrow;
Thus today; and how shall it be with thee tomorrow?
Beautiful, tender—what else?
A hope tells.
Thus today; and how shall it be with thee tomorrow?
Beautiful, tender—what else?
A hope tells.
Beautiful, tender, keeping the jubilee
In the land of home together, past death and sea;
No more change or death, no more
Salt sea-shore.
In the land of home together, past death and sea;
No more change or death, no more
Salt sea-shore.
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DE PROFUNDIS.
Oh why is heaven built so far,
Oh why is earth set so remote?
I cannot reach the nearest star
That hangs afloat.
Oh why is earth set so remote?
I cannot reach the nearest star
That hangs afloat.
I would not care to reach the moon,
One round monotonous of change;
Yet even she repeats her tune
Beyond my range.
One round monotonous of change;
Yet even she repeats her tune
Beyond my range.
I never watch the scattered fire
Of stars, or sun's far-trailing train,
But all my heart is one desire,
And all in vain:
Of stars, or sun's far-trailing train,
But all my heart is one desire,
And all in vain:
For I am bound with fleshly bands,
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope.
Joy, beauty, lie beyond my scope;
I strain my heart, I stretch my hands,
And catch at hope.
TEMPUS FUGIT.
Lovely Spring,A brief sweet thing,
Is swift on the wing;
Gracious Summer,
A slow sweet comer,
Hastens past;
Autumn while sweet
Is all incomplete
With a moaning blast,—
Nothing can last,
Can be cleaved unto,
Can be dwelt upon;
It is hurried thro',
It is come and gone,
Undone it cannot be done,
It is ever to do,
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Ever waxing old
And lapsing to Winter cold.
GOLDEN GLORIES.
The buttercup is like a golden cup,The marigold is like a golden frill,
The daisy with a golden eye looks up,
And golden spreads the flag beside the rill,
And gay and golden nods the daffodil,
The gorsey common swells a golden sea,
The cowslip hangs a head of golden tips,
And golden drips the honey which the bee
Sucks from sweet hearts of flowers and stores and sips.
JOHNNY.
Founded On An Anecdote Of The First French Revolution.
Johnny had a golden head
Like a golden mop in blow,
Right and left his curls would spread
In a glory and a glow,
And they framed his honest face
Like stray sunbeams out of place.
Like a golden mop in blow,
Right and left his curls would spread
In a glory and a glow,
And they framed his honest face
Like stray sunbeams out of place.
Long and thick, they half could hide
How threadbare his patched jacket hung;
They used to be his Mother's pride;
She praised them with a tender tongue,
And stroked them with a loving finger
That smoothed and stroked and loved to linger.
How threadbare his patched jacket hung;
They used to be his Mother's pride;
She praised them with a tender tongue,
And stroked them with a loving finger
That smoothed and stroked and loved to linger.
On a doorstep Johnny sat,
Up and down the street looked he;
Johnny did not own a hat,
Hot or cold tho' days might be;
Johnny did not own a boot
To cover up his muddy foot.
Up and down the street looked he;
Johnny did not own a hat,
Hot or cold tho' days might be;
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To cover up his muddy foot.
Johnny's face was pale and thin,
Pale with hunger and with crying;
For his Mother lay within,
Talked and tossed and seemed a-dying,
While Johnny racked his brains to think
How to get her help and drink,
Pale with hunger and with crying;
For his Mother lay within,
Talked and tossed and seemed a-dying,
While Johnny racked his brains to think
How to get her help and drink,
Get her physic, get her tea,
Get her bread and something nice;
Not a penny piece had he,
And scarce a shilling might suffice;
No wonder that his soul was sad,
When not one penny piece he had.
Get her bread and something nice;
Not a penny piece had he,
And scarce a shilling might suffice;
No wonder that his soul was sad,
When not one penny piece he had.
As he sat there thinking, moping,
Because his Mother's wants were many,
Wishing much but scarcely hoping
To earn a shilling or a penny,
A friendly neighbour passed him by
And questioned him: Why did he cry?
Because his Mother's wants were many,
Wishing much but scarcely hoping
To earn a shilling or a penny,
A friendly neighbour passed him by
And questioned him: Why did he cry?
Alas! his trouble soon was told:
He did not cry for cold or hunger,
Tho' he was hungry both and cold;
He only felt more weak and younger,
Because he wished so to be old
And apt at earning pence or gold.
He did not cry for cold or hunger,
Tho' he was hungry both and cold;
He only felt more weak and younger,
Because he wished so to be old
And apt at earning pence or gold.
Kindly that neighbour was, but poor,
Scant coin had he to give or lend;
And well he guessed there needed more
Than pence or shillings to befriend
The helpless woman in her strait,
So much loved, yet so desolate.
Scant coin had he to give or lend;
And well he guessed there needed more
Than pence or shillings to befriend
The helpless woman in her strait,
So much loved, yet so desolate.
One way he saw, and only one:
He would—he could not—give the advice,
And yet he must: the widow's son
Had curls of gold would fetch their price;
Long curls which might be clipped, and sold
For silver, or perhaps for gold.
He would—he could not—give the advice,
And yet he must: the widow's son
Had curls of gold would fetch their price;
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For silver, or perhaps for gold.
Our Johnny, when he understood
Which shop it was that purchased hair,
Ran off as briskly as he could,
And in a trice stood cropped and bare,
Too short of hair to fill a locket,
But jingling money in his pocket.
Which shop it was that purchased hair,
Ran off as briskly as he could,
And in a trice stood cropped and bare,
Too short of hair to fill a locket,
But jingling money in his pocket.
Precious money—tea and bread,
Physic, ease, for Mother dear,
Better than a golden head:
Yet our hero dropped one tear
When he spied himself close shorn,
Barer much than lamb new born.
Physic, ease, for Mother dear,
Better than a golden head:
Yet our hero dropped one tear
When he spied himself close shorn,
Barer much than lamb new born.
His Mother throve upon the money,
Ate and revived and kissed her son:
But oh! when she perceived her Johnny,
And understood what he had done
All and only for her sake,
She sobbed as if her heart must break.
Ate and revived and kissed her son:
But oh! when she perceived her Johnny,
And understood what he had done
All and only for her sake,
She sobbed as if her heart must break.
“HOLLOW-SOUNDING AND MYSTERIOUS.”
There's no replyingTo the Wind's sighing,
Telling, foretelling,
Dying, undying,
Dwindling and swelling,
Complaining, droning,
Whistling and moaning,
Ever beginning,
Ending, repeating,
Hinting and dinning,
Lagging and fleeting—
We've no replying
Living or dying
To the Wind's sighing.
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Variable Wind-tone?
What would be teaching,
O sinking, swelling,
Desolate Wind-moan?
Ever for ever
Teaching and preaching,
Never, ah never
Making us wiser—
The earliest riser
Catches no meaning,
The last who hearkens
Garners no gleaning
Of wisdom's treasure,
While the world darkens:—
Living or dying,
In pain, in pleasure,
We've no replying
To wordless flying
Wind's sighing.
MAIDEN MAY.
Maiden May sat in her bower,
In her blush rose bower in flower,
Sweet of scent;
Sat and dreamed away an hour,
Half content, half uncontent.
In her blush rose bower in flower,
Sweet of scent;
Sat and dreamed away an hour,
Half content, half uncontent.
“Why should rose blossoms be born,
Tender blossoms, on a thorn
Tho' so sweet?
Never a thorn besets the corn
Scentless in its strength complete.
Tender blossoms, on a thorn
Tho' so sweet?
Never a thorn besets the corn
Scentless in its strength complete.
“Why are roses all so frail,
At the mercy of a gale,
Of a breath?
Yet so sweet and perfect pale,
Still so sweet in life and death.”
At the mercy of a gale,
Of a breath?
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Still so sweet in life and death.”
Maiden May sat in her bower,
In her blush rose bower in flower,
Where a linnet
Made one bristling branch the tower
For her nest and young ones in it.
In her blush rose bower in flower,
Where a linnet
Made one bristling branch the tower
For her nest and young ones in it.
“Gay and clear the linnet trills;
Yet the skylark only, thrills
Heaven and earth
When he breasts the height, and fills
Height and depth with song and mirth.
Yet the skylark only, thrills
Heaven and earth
When he breasts the height, and fills
Height and depth with song and mirth.
“Nightingales which yield to night
Solitary strange delight,
Reign alone:
But the lark for all his height
Fills no solitary throne;
Solitary strange delight,
Reign alone:
But the lark for all his height
Fills no solitary throne;
“While he sings, a hundred sing;
Wing their flight below his wing
Yet in flight;
Each a lovely joyful thing
To the measure of its delight.
Wing their flight below his wing
Yet in flight;
Each a lovely joyful thing
To the measure of its delight.
“Why then should a lark be reckoned
One alone, without a second
Near his throne?
He in skyward flight unslackened,
In his music, not alone.”
One alone, without a second
Near his throne?
He in skyward flight unslackened,
In his music, not alone.”
Maiden May sat in her bower;
Her own face was like a flower
Of the prime,
Half in sunshine, half in shower,
In the year's most tender time.
Her own face was like a flower
Of the prime,
Half in sunshine, half in shower,
In the year's most tender time.
Her own thoughts in silent song
Musically flowed along,
Wise, unwise,
Wistful, wondering, weak or strong:
As brook shallows sink or rise.
Musically flowed along,
Wise, unwise,
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As brook shallows sink or rise.
Other thoughts another day,
Maiden May, will surge and sway
Round your heart;
Wake, and plead, and turn at bay,
Wisdom part, and folly part.
Maiden May, will surge and sway
Round your heart;
Wake, and plead, and turn at bay,
Wisdom part, and folly part.
Time not far remote will borrow
Other joys, another sorrow,
All for you;
Not today, and yet tomorrow
Reasoning false and reasoning true.
Other joys, another sorrow,
All for you;
Not today, and yet tomorrow
Reasoning false and reasoning true.
Wherefore greatest? Wherefore least?
Hearts that starve and hearts that feast?
You and I?
Stammering Oracles have ceased,
And the whole earth stands at “why?”
Hearts that starve and hearts that feast?
You and I?
Stammering Oracles have ceased,
And the whole earth stands at “why?”
Underneath all things that be
Lies an unsolved mystery;
Over all
Spreads a veil impenetrably,
Spreads a dense unlifted pall.
Lies an unsolved mystery;
Over all
Spreads a veil impenetrably,
Spreads a dense unlifted pall.
Mystery of mysteries:
This creation hears and sees
High and low—
Vanity of vanities:
This we test and this we know.
This creation hears and sees
High and low—
Vanity of vanities:
This we test and this we know.
Maiden May, the days of flowering
Nurse you now in sweet embowering,
Sunny days;
Bright with rainbows all the showering,
Bright with blossoms all the ways.
Nurse you now in sweet embowering,
Sunny days;
Bright with rainbows all the showering,
Bright with blossoms all the ways.
Close the inlet of your bower,
Close it close with thorn and flower,
Maiden May;
Lengthen out the shortening hour,—
Morrows are not as today.
Close it close with thorn and flower,
Maiden May;
Lengthen out the shortening hour,—
Morrows are not as today.
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Stay today which wanes too soon,
Stay the sun and stay the moon,
Stay your youth;
Bask you in the actual noon,
Rest you in the present truth.
Stay the sun and stay the moon,
Stay your youth;
Bask you in the actual noon,
Rest you in the present truth.
Let today suffice today:
For itself tomorrow may
Fetch its loss,
Aim and stumble, say its say,
Watch and pray and bear its cross.
For itself tomorrow may
Fetch its loss,
Aim and stumble, say its say,
Watch and pray and bear its cross.
TILL TOMORROW.
Long have I longed, till I am tired
Of longing and desire;
Farewell my points in vain desired,
My dying fire;
Farewell all things that die and fail and tire.
Of longing and desire;
Farewell my points in vain desired,
My dying fire;
Farewell all things that die and fail and tire.
Springtide and youth and useless pleasure
And all my useless scheming,
My hopes of unattainable treasure,
Dreams not worth dreaming,
Glow-worms that gleam but yield no warmth in gleaming,
And all my useless scheming,
My hopes of unattainable treasure,
Dreams not worth dreaming,
Glow-worms that gleam but yield no warmth in gleaming,
Farewell all shows that fade in showing:
My wish and joy stand over
Until tomorrow; Heaven is glowing
Thro' cloudy cover,
Beyond all clouds loves me my Heavenly Lover.
My wish and joy stand over
Until tomorrow; Heaven is glowing
Thro' cloudy cover,
Beyond all clouds loves me my Heavenly Lover.
DEATH-WATCHES.
The Spring spreads one green lap of flowers
Which Autumn buries at the fall,
No chilling showers of Autumn hours
Can stay them or recall;
Winds sing a dirge, while earth lays out of sight
Her garment of delight.
Which Autumn buries at the fall,
No chilling showers of Autumn hours
Can stay them or recall;
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Her garment of delight.
The cloven East brings forth the sun,
The cloven West doth bury him
What time his gorgeous race is run
And all the world grows dim;
A funeral moon is lit in heaven's hollow,
And pale the star-lights follow.
The cloven West doth bury him
What time his gorgeous race is run
And all the world grows dim;
A funeral moon is lit in heaven's hollow,
And pale the star-lights follow.
TOUCHING “NEVER.”
Because you never yet have loved me, dear,Think you you never can nor ever will?
Surely while life remains hope lingers still,
Hope the last blossom of life's dying year.
Because the season and mine age grow sere,
Shall never Spring bring forth her daffodil,
Shall never sweeter Summer feast her fill
Of roses with the nightingales they hear?
If you had loved me, I not loving you,
If you had urged me with the tender plea
Of what our unknown years to come might do
(Eternal years, if Time should count too few),
I would have owned the point you pressed on me,
Was possible, or probable, or true.
BRANDONS BOTH.
Oh fair Milly Brandon, a young maid, a fair maid!
All her curls are yellow and her eyes are blue,
And her cheeks were rosy red till a secret care made
Hollow whiteness of their brightness as a care will do.
All her curls are yellow and her eyes are blue,
And her cheeks were rosy red till a secret care made
Hollow whiteness of their brightness as a care will do.
Still she tends her flowers, but not as in the old days,
Still she sings her songs, but not the songs of old:
If now it be high Summer her days seem brief and cold days,
If now it be high Summer her nights are long and cold.
Still she sings her songs, but not the songs of old:
If now it be high Summer her days seem brief and cold days,
If now it be high Summer her nights are long and cold.
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If you have a secret keep it, pure maid Milly;
Life is filled with troubles and the world with scorn;
And pity without love is at best times hard and chilly,
Chilling sore and stinging sore a heart forlorn.
Life is filled with troubles and the world with scorn;
And pity without love is at best times hard and chilly,
Chilling sore and stinging sore a heart forlorn.
Walter Brandon, do you guess Milly Brandon's secret?
Many things you know, but not everything,
With your locks like raven's plumage, and eyes like an egret,
And a laugh that is music, and such a voice to sing.
Many things you know, but not everything,
With your locks like raven's plumage, and eyes like an egret,
And a laugh that is music, and such a voice to sing.
Nelly Knollys, she is fair, but she is not fairer
Than fairest Milly Brandon was before she turned so pale:
Oh, but Nelly's dearer if she be not rarer,
She need not keep a secret or blush behind a veil.
Than fairest Milly Brandon was before she turned so pale:
Oh, but Nelly's dearer if she be not rarer,
She need not keep a secret or blush behind a veil.
Beyond the first green hills, beyond the nearest valleys,
Nelly dwells at home beneath her mother's eyes:
Her home is neat and homely, not a cot and not a palace,
Just the home where love sets up his happiest memories.
Nelly dwells at home beneath her mother's eyes:
Her home is neat and homely, not a cot and not a palace,
Just the home where love sets up his happiest memories.
Milly has no mother; and sad beyond another
Is she whose blessed mother is vanished out of call:
Truly comfort beyond comfort is stored up in a Mother
Who bears with all, and hopes thro' all, and loves us all.
Is she whose blessed mother is vanished out of call:
Truly comfort beyond comfort is stored up in a Mother
Who bears with all, and hopes thro' all, and loves us all.
Where peacocks nod and flaunt up and down the terrace,
Furling and unfurling their scores of sightless eyes,
To and fro among the leaves and buds and flowers and berries
Maiden Milly strolls and pauses, smiles and sighs.
Furling and unfurling their scores of sightless eyes,
To and fro among the leaves and buds and flowers and berries
Maiden Milly strolls and pauses, smiles and sighs.
On the hedged-in terrace of her father's palace
She may stroll and muse alone, may smile or sigh alone,
Letting thoughts and eyes go wandering over hills and valleys
Today her father's, and one day to be all her own.
She may stroll and muse alone, may smile or sigh alone,
Letting thoughts and eyes go wandering over hills and valleys
Today her father's, and one day to be all her own.
If her thoughts go coursing down lowlands and up highlands,
It is because the startled game are leaping from their lair;
If her thoughts dart homeward to the reedy river islands,
It is because the waterfowl rise startled here or there.
It is because the startled game are leaping from their lair;
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It is because the waterfowl rise startled here or there.
At length a footfall on the steps: she turns, composed and steady,
All the long-descended greatness of her father's house
Lifting up her head; and there stands Walter keen and ready
For hunting or for hawking, a flush upon his brows.
All the long-descended greatness of her father's house
Lifting up her head; and there stands Walter keen and ready
For hunting or for hawking, a flush upon his brows.
“Good-morrow, fair cousin.” “Good-morrow, fairest cousin:
The sun has started on his course, and I must start today.
If you have done me one good turn you've done me many a dozen,
And I shall often think of you, think of you away.”
The sun has started on his course, and I must start today.
If you have done me one good turn you've done me many a dozen,
And I shall often think of you, think of you away.”
“Over hill and hollow what quarry will you follow,
Or what fish will you angle for beside the river's edge?
There's cloud upon the hill-top and there's mist deep down the hollow,
And fog among the rushes and the rustling sedge.”
Or what fish will you angle for beside the river's edge?
There's cloud upon the hill-top and there's mist deep down the hollow,
And fog among the rushes and the rustling sedge.”
“I shall speed well enough be it hunting or hawking,
Or casting a bait toward the shyest daintiest fin.
But I kiss your hands, my cousin; I must not loiter talking,
For nothing comes of nothing, and I'm fain to seek and win.”
Or casting a bait toward the shyest daintiest fin.
But I kiss your hands, my cousin; I must not loiter talking,
For nothing comes of nothing, and I'm fain to seek and win.”
“Here's a thorny rose: will you wear it an hour,
Till the petals drop apart still fresh and pink and sweet?
Till the petals drop from the drooping perished flower,
And only the graceless thorns are left of it.”
Till the petals drop apart still fresh and pink and sweet?
Till the petals drop from the drooping perished flower,
And only the graceless thorns are left of it.”
“Nay, I have another rose sprung in another garden,
Another rose which sweetens all the world for me.
Be you a tenderer mistress and be you a warier warden
Of your rose, as sweet as mine, and full as fair to see.”
Another rose which sweetens all the world for me.
Be you a tenderer mistress and be you a warier warden
Of your rose, as sweet as mine, and full as fair to see.”
“Nay, a bud once plucked there is no reviving,
Nor is it worth your wearing now, nor worth indeed my own;
The dead to the dead, and the living to the living.
It's time I go within, for it's time now you were gone.”
Nor is it worth your wearing now, nor worth indeed my own;
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It's time I go within, for it's time now you were gone.”
“Good-bye, Milly Brandon, I shall not forget you,
Tho' it be good-bye between us for ever from today;
I could almost wish today that I had never met you,
And I'm true to you in this one word that I say.”
Tho' it be good-bye between us for ever from today;
I could almost wish today that I had never met you,
And I'm true to you in this one word that I say.”
“Good-bye, Walter. I can guess which thornless rose you covet;
Long may it bloom and prolong its sunny morn:
Yet as for my one thorny rose, I do not cease to love it,
And if it is no more a flower I love it as a thorn.”
Long may it bloom and prolong its sunny morn:
Yet as for my one thorny rose, I do not cease to love it,
And if it is no more a flower I love it as a thorn.”
A LIFE'S PARALLELS.
Never on this side of the grave again,
On this side of the river,
On this side of the garner of the grain,
Never,—
On this side of the river,
On this side of the garner of the grain,
Never,—
Ever while time flows on and on and on,
That narrow noiseless river,
Ever while corn bows heavy-headed, wan,
Ever,—
That narrow noiseless river,
Ever while corn bows heavy-headed, wan,
Ever,—
Never despairing, often fainting, rueing,
But looking back, ah never!
Faint yet pursuing, faint yet still pursuing
Ever.
But looking back, ah never!
Faint yet pursuing, faint yet still pursuing
Ever.
AT LAST.
Many have sung of love a root of bane:While to my mind a root of balm it is,
For love at length breeds love; sufficient bliss
For life and death and rising up again.
Surely when light of Heaven makes all things plain,
Love will grow plain with all its mysteries;
Nor shall we need to fetch from over seas
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Love in our borders, love within our heart,
Love all in all, we then shall bide at rest,
Ended for ever life's unending quest,
Ended for ever effort, change and fear:
Love all in all;—no more that better part
Purchased, but at the cost of all things here.
GOLDEN SILENCES.
There is silence that saith, “Ah me!”
There is silence that nothing saith;
One the silence of life forlorn,
One the silence of death;
One is, and the other shall be.
There is silence that nothing saith;
One the silence of life forlorn,
One the silence of death;
One is, and the other shall be.
One we know and have known for long,
One we know not, but we shall know,
All we who have ever been born;
Even so, be it so,—
There is silence, despite a song.
One we know not, but we shall know,
All we who have ever been born;
Even so, be it so,—
There is silence, despite a song.
Sowing day is a silent day,
Resting night is a silent night;
But whoso reaps the ripened corn
Shall shout in his delight,
While silences vanish away.
Resting night is a silent night;
But whoso reaps the ripened corn
Shall shout in his delight,
While silences vanish away.
IN THE WILLOW SHADE.
I sat beneath a willow tree,
Where water falls and calls;
While fancies upon fancies solaced me,
Some true, and some were false.
Where water falls and calls;
While fancies upon fancies solaced me,
Some true, and some were false.
Who set their heart upon a hope
That never comes to pass,
Droop in the end like fading heliotrope
The sun's wan looking-glass.
That never comes to pass,
Droop in the end like fading heliotrope
The sun's wan looking-glass.
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Who set their will upon a whim
Clung to thro' good and ill,
Are wrecked alike whether they sink or swim,
Or hit or miss their will.
Clung to thro' good and ill,
Are wrecked alike whether they sink or swim,
Or hit or miss their will.
All things are vain that wax and wane,
For which we waste our breath;
Love only doth not wane and is not vain,
Love only outlives death.
For which we waste our breath;
Love only doth not wane and is not vain,
Love only outlives death.
A singing lark rose toward the sky,
Circling he sang amain;
He sang, a speck scarce visible sky-high,
And then he sank again.
Circling he sang amain;
He sang, a speck scarce visible sky-high,
And then he sank again.
A second like a sunlit spark
Flashed singing up his track;
But never overtook that foremost lark,
And songless fluttered back.
Flashed singing up his track;
But never overtook that foremost lark,
And songless fluttered back.
A hovering melody of birds
Haunted the air above;
They clearly sang contentment without words,
And youth and joy and love.
Haunted the air above;
They clearly sang contentment without words,
And youth and joy and love.
O silvery weeping willow tree
With all leaves shivering,
Have you no purpose but to shadow me
Beside this rippled spring?
With all leaves shivering,
Have you no purpose but to shadow me
Beside this rippled spring?
On this first fleeting day of Spring,
For Winter is gone by,
And every bird on every quivering wing
Floats in a sunny sky;
For Winter is gone by,
And every bird on every quivering wing
Floats in a sunny sky;
On this first Summer-like soft day,
While sunshine steeps the air,
And every cloud has gat itself away,
And birds sing everywhere.
While sunshine steeps the air,
And every cloud has gat itself away,
And birds sing everywhere.
Have you no purpose in the world
But thus to shadow me
With all your tender drooping twigs unfurled,
O weeping willow tree?
But thus to shadow me
With all your tender drooping twigs unfurled,
O weeping willow tree?
108
With all your tremulous leaves outspread
Betwixt me and the sun,
While here I loiter on a mossy bed
With half my work undone;
Betwixt me and the sun,
While here I loiter on a mossy bed
With half my work undone;
My work undone, that should be done
At once with all my might;
For after the long day and lingering sun
Comes the unworking night.
At once with all my might;
For after the long day and lingering sun
Comes the unworking night.
This day is lapsing on its way,
Is lapsing out of sight;
And after all the chances of the day
Comes the resourceless night.
Is lapsing out of sight;
And after all the chances of the day
Comes the resourceless night.
The weeping willow shook its head
And stretched its shadow long;
The west grew crimson, the sun smouldered red,
The birds forbore a song.
And stretched its shadow long;
The west grew crimson, the sun smouldered red,
The birds forbore a song.
Slow wind sighed thro' the willow leaves,
The ripple made a moan,
The world drooped murmuring like a thing that grieves;
And then I felt alone.
The ripple made a moan,
The world drooped murmuring like a thing that grieves;
And then I felt alone.
I rose to go, and felt the chill,
And shivered as I went;
Yet shivering wondered, and I wonder still,
What more that willow meant;
And shivered as I went;
Yet shivering wondered, and I wonder still,
What more that willow meant;
That silvery weeping willow tree
With all leaves shivering,
Which spent one long day overshadowing me
Beside a spring in Spring.
With all leaves shivering,
Which spent one long day overshadowing me
Beside a spring in Spring.
FLUTTERED WINGS.
The splendour of the kindling day,
The splendour of the setting sun,
These move my soul to wend its way,
And have done
With all we grasp and toil amongst and say.
The splendour of the setting sun,
These move my soul to wend its way,
And have done
With all we grasp and toil amongst and say.
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The paling roses of a cloud,
The fading bow that arches space,
These woo my fancy toward my shroud;
Toward the place
Of faces veiled, and heads discrowned and bowed.
The fading bow that arches space,
These woo my fancy toward my shroud;
Toward the place
Of faces veiled, and heads discrowned and bowed.
The nation of the steadfast stars,
The wandering star whose blaze is brief,
These make me beat against the bars
Of my grief;
My tedious grief, twin to the life it mars.
The wandering star whose blaze is brief,
These make me beat against the bars
Of my grief;
My tedious grief, twin to the life it mars.
O fretted heart tossed to and fro,
So fain to flee, so fain to rest!
All glories that are high or low,
East or west,
Grow dim to thee who art so fain to go.
So fain to flee, so fain to rest!
All glories that are high or low,
East or west,
Grow dim to thee who art so fain to go.
A FISHER-WIFE.
The soonest mended, nothing said;
And help may rise from east or west;
But my two hands are lumps of lead,
My heart sits leaden in my breast.
And help may rise from east or west;
But my two hands are lumps of lead,
My heart sits leaden in my breast.
O north wind swoop not from the north,
O south wind linger in the south,
Oh come not raving raging forth,
To bring my heart into my mouth;
O south wind linger in the south,
Oh come not raving raging forth,
To bring my heart into my mouth;
For I've a husband out at sea,
Afloat on feeble planks of wood;
He does not know what fear may be;
I would have told him if I could.
Afloat on feeble planks of wood;
He does not know what fear may be;
I would have told him if I could.
I would have locked him in my arms,
I would have hid him in my heart;
For oh! the waves are fraught with harms,
And he and I so far apart.
I would have hid him in my heart;
For oh! the waves are fraught with harms,
And he and I so far apart.
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WHAT'S IN A NAME?
Why has Spring one syllable less
Than any its fellow season?
There may be some other reason,
And I'm merely making a guess;
But surely it hoards such wealth
Of happiness, hope and health,
Sunshine and musical sound,
It may spare a foot from its name
Yet all the same
Superabound.
Than any its fellow season?
There may be some other reason,
And I'm merely making a guess;
But surely it hoards such wealth
Of happiness, hope and health,
Sunshine and musical sound,
It may spare a foot from its name
Yet all the same
Superabound.
Soft-named Summer,
Most welcome comer,
Brings almost everything
Over which we dream or sing
Or sigh;
But then summer wends its way,
Tomorrow,—today,—
Good-bye!
Most welcome comer,
Brings almost everything
Over which we dream or sing
Or sigh;
But then summer wends its way,
Tomorrow,—today,—
Good-bye!
Autumn,—the slow name lingers,
While we likewise flag;
It silences many singers;
Its slow days drag,
Yet hasten at speed
To leave us in chilly need
For Winter to strip indeed.
While we likewise flag;
It silences many singers;
Its slow days drag,
Yet hasten at speed
To leave us in chilly need
For Winter to strip indeed.
In all-lack Winter,
Dull of sense and of sound,
We huddle and shiver
Beside our splinter
Of crackling pine,
Snow in sky and snow on ground.
Winter and cold
Can't last for ever!
Today, tomorrow, the sun will shine;
When we are old,
But some still are young,
Singing the song
Which others have sung,
Ringing the bells
Which others have rung,—
Even so!
We ourselves, who else?
We ourselves long
Long ago.
Dull of sense and of sound,
We huddle and shiver
Beside our splinter
Of crackling pine,
Snow in sky and snow on ground.
Winter and cold
Can't last for ever!
Today, tomorrow, the sun will shine;
When we are old,
But some still are young,
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Which others have sung,
Ringing the bells
Which others have rung,—
Even so!
We ourselves, who else?
We ourselves long
Long ago.
MARIANA.
Not for me marring or making,
Not for me giving or taking;
I love my Love and he loves not me,
I love my Love and my heart is breaking.
Not for me giving or taking;
I love my Love and he loves not me,
I love my Love and my heart is breaking.
Sweet is Spring in its lovely showing,
Sweet the violet veiled in blowing,
Sweet it is to love and be loved;
Ah, sweet knowledge beyond my knowing!
Sweet the violet veiled in blowing,
Sweet it is to love and be loved;
Ah, sweet knowledge beyond my knowing!
Who sighs for love sighs but for pleasure,
Who wastes for love hoards up a treasure;
Sweet to be loved and take no count,
Sweet it is to love without measure.
Who wastes for love hoards up a treasure;
Sweet to be loved and take no count,
Sweet it is to love without measure.
Sweet my Love whom I loved to try for,
Sweet my Love whom I love and sigh for,
Will you once love me and sigh for me,
You my Love whom I love and die for?
Sweet my Love whom I love and sigh for,
Will you once love me and sigh for me,
You my Love whom I love and die for?
MEMENTO MORI.
Poor the pleasureDoled out by measure,
Sweet tho' it be, while brief
As falling of the leaf;
Poor is pleasure
By weight and measure.
112
Which ends tomorrow;
Sharp tho' it be and sore,
It ends for evermore:
Zest of sorrow,
What ends tomorrow.
“ONE FOOT ON SEA, AND ONE ON SHORE.”
“Oh tell me once and tell me twice
And tell me thrice to make it plain,
When we who part this weary day,
When we who part shall meet again.”
And tell me thrice to make it plain,
When we who part this weary day,
When we who part shall meet again.”
“When windflowers blossom on the sea
And fishes skim along the plain,
Then we who part this weary day,
Then you and I shall meet again.”
And fishes skim along the plain,
Then we who part this weary day,
Then you and I shall meet again.”
“Yet tell me once before we part,
Why need we part who part in pain?
If flowers must blossom on the sea,
Why, we shall never meet again.
Why need we part who part in pain?
If flowers must blossom on the sea,
Why, we shall never meet again.
“My cheeks are paler than a rose,
My tears are salter than the main,
My heart is like a lump of ice
If we must never meet again.”
My tears are salter than the main,
My heart is like a lump of ice
If we must never meet again.”
“Oh weep or laugh, but let me be,
And live or die, for all's in vain;
For life's in vain since we must part,
And parting must not meet again
And live or die, for all's in vain;
For life's in vain since we must part,
And parting must not meet again
“Till windflowers blossom on the sea
And fishes skim along the plain;
Pale rose of roses let me be,
Your breaking heart breaks mine again.”
And fishes skim along the plain;
Pale rose of roses let me be,
Your breaking heart breaks mine again.”
113
BUDS AND BABIES.
A million buds are born that never blow,
That sweet with promise lift a pretty head
To blush and wither on a barren bed
And leave no fruit to show.
That sweet with promise lift a pretty head
To blush and wither on a barren bed
And leave no fruit to show.
Sweet, unfulfilled. Yet have I understood
One joy, by their fragility made plain:
Nothing was ever beautiful in vain,
Or all in vain was good.
One joy, by their fragility made plain:
Nothing was ever beautiful in vain,
Or all in vain was good.
BOY JOHNNY.
“If you'll busk you as a bride
And make ready,
It's I will wed you with a ring,
O fair lady.”
And make ready,
It's I will wed you with a ring,
O fair lady.”
“Shall I busk me as a bride,
I so bonny,
For you to wed me with a ring,
O boy Johnny?”
I so bonny,
For you to wed me with a ring,
O boy Johnny?”
“When you've busked you as a bride
And made ready,
Who else is there to marry you,
O fair lady?”
And made ready,
Who else is there to marry you,
O fair lady?”
“I will find my lover out,
I so bonny,
And you shall bear my wedding-train,
O boy Johnny.”
I so bonny,
And you shall bear my wedding-train,
O boy Johnny.”
FREAKS OF FASHION.
Such a hubbub in the nests,
Such a bustle and squeak!
Nestlings, guiltless of a feather,
Learning just to speak,
Ask—“And how about the fashions?”
From a cavernous beak.
Such a bustle and squeak!
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Learning just to speak,
Ask—“And how about the fashions?”
From a cavernous beak.
Perched on bushes, perched on hedges,
Perched on firm hahas,
Perched on anything that holds them,
Gay papas and grave mammas
Teach the knowledge-thirsty nestlings:
Hear the gay papas.
Perched on firm hahas,
Perched on anything that holds them,
Gay papas and grave mammas
Teach the knowledge-thirsty nestlings:
Hear the gay papas.
Robin says: “A scarlet waistcoat
Will be all the wear,
Snug, and also cheerful-looking
For the frostiest air,
Comfortable for the chest too
When one comes to plume and pair.”
Will be all the wear,
Snug, and also cheerful-looking
For the frostiest air,
Comfortable for the chest too
When one comes to plume and pair.”
“Neat gray hoods will be in vogue,”
Quoth a Jackdaw: “Glossy gray,
Setting close, yet setting easy,
Nothing fly-away;
Suited to our misty mornings,
À la negligée.”
Quoth a Jackdaw: “Glossy gray,
Setting close, yet setting easy,
Nothing fly-away;
Suited to our misty mornings,
À la negligée.”
Flushing salmon, flushing sulphur,
Haughty Cockatoos
Answer—“Hoods may do for mornings,
But for evenings choose
High head-dresses, curved like crescents,
Such as well-bred persons use.”
Haughty Cockatoos
Answer—“Hoods may do for mornings,
But for evenings choose
High head-dresses, curved like crescents,
Such as well-bred persons use.”
“Top-knots, yes; yet more essential
Still, a train or tail,”
Screamed the Peacock: “Gemmed and lustrous,
Not too stiff, and not too frail;
Those are best which rearrange as
Fans, and spread or trail.”
Still, a train or tail,”
Screamed the Peacock: “Gemmed and lustrous,
Not too stiff, and not too frail;
Those are best which rearrange as
Fans, and spread or trail.”
Spoke the Swan, entrenched behind
An inimitable neck:
“After all, there's nothing sweeter
For the lawn or lake
Than simple white, if fine and flaky
And absolutely free from speck.”
An inimitable neck:
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For the lawn or lake
Than simple white, if fine and flaky
And absolutely free from speck.”
“Yellow,” hinted a Canary,
“Warmer, not less distingué.”
“Peach colour,” put in a Lory,
“Cannot look outré.”
“All the colours are in fashion,
And are right,” the Parrots say.
“Warmer, not less distingué.”
“Peach colour,” put in a Lory,
“Cannot look outré.”
“All the colours are in fashion,
And are right,” the Parrots say.
“Very well. But do contrast
Tints harmonious,”
Piped a Blackbird, justly proud
Of bill aurigerous;
“Half the world may learn a lesson
As to that from us.”
Tints harmonious,”
Piped a Blackbird, justly proud
Of bill aurigerous;
“Half the world may learn a lesson
As to that from us.”
Then a Stork took up the word:
“Aim at height and chic:
Not high heels, they're common; somehow,
Stilted legs, not thick,
Nor yet thin:” he just glanced downward
And snapped to his beak.
“Aim at height and chic:
Not high heels, they're common; somehow,
Stilted legs, not thick,
Nor yet thin:” he just glanced downward
And snapped to his beak.
Here a rustling and a whirring,
As of fans outspread,
Hinted that mammas felt anxious
Lest the next thing said
Might prove less than quite judicious,
Or even underbred.
As of fans outspread,
Hinted that mammas felt anxious
Lest the next thing said
Might prove less than quite judicious,
Or even underbred.
So a mother Auk resumed
The broken thread of speech:
“Let colours sort themselves, my dears,
Yellow, or red, or peach;
The main points, as it seems to me,
We mothers have to teach,
The broken thread of speech:
“Let colours sort themselves, my dears,
Yellow, or red, or peach;
The main points, as it seems to me,
We mothers have to teach,
“Are form and texture, elegance,
An air reserved, sublime;
The mode of wearing what we wear
With due regard to month and clime.
But now, let's all compose ourselves,
It's almost breakfast-time.”
An air reserved, sublime;
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With due regard to month and clime.
But now, let's all compose ourselves,
It's almost breakfast-time.”
A hubbub, a squeak, a bustle!
Who cares to chatter or sing
With delightful breakfast coming?
Yet they whisper under the wing:
“So we may wear whatever we like,
Anything, everything!”
Who cares to chatter or sing
With delightful breakfast coming?
Yet they whisper under the wing:
“So we may wear whatever we like,
Anything, everything!”
AN OCTOBER GARDEN.
In my Autumn garden I was fain
To mourn among my scattered roses;
Alas for that last rosebud which uncloses
To Autumn's languid sun and rain
When all the world is on the wane!
Which has not felt the sweet constraint of June,
Nor heard the nightingale in tune.
To mourn among my scattered roses;
Alas for that last rosebud which uncloses
To Autumn's languid sun and rain
When all the world is on the wane!
Which has not felt the sweet constraint of June,
Nor heard the nightingale in tune.
Broad-faced asters by my garden walk,
You are but coarse compared with roses:
More choice, more dear that rosebud which uncloses
Faint-scented, pinched, upon its stalk,
That least and last which cold winds balk;
A rose it is tho' least and last of all,
A rose to me tho' at the fall.
You are but coarse compared with roses:
More choice, more dear that rosebud which uncloses
Faint-scented, pinched, upon its stalk,
That least and last which cold winds balk;
A rose it is tho' least and last of all,
A rose to me tho' at the fall.
“SUMMER IS ENDED.”
To think that this meaningless thing was ever a rose,
Scentless, colourless, this!
Will it ever be thus (who knows?)
Thus with our bliss,
If we wait till the close?
Scentless, colourless, this!
Will it ever be thus (who knows?)
Thus with our bliss,
If we wait till the close?
117
Tho' we care not to wait for the end, there comes the end
Sooner, later, at last,
Which nothing can mar, nothing mend:
An end locked fast,
Bent we cannot re-bend.
Sooner, later, at last,
Which nothing can mar, nothing mend:
An end locked fast,
Bent we cannot re-bend.
PASSING AND GLASSING.
All things that pass
Are woman's looking-glass;
They show her how her bloom must fade,
And she herself be laid
With withered roses in the shade;
With withered roses and the fallen peach,
Unlovely, out of reach
Of summer joy that was.
Are woman's looking-glass;
They show her how her bloom must fade,
And she herself be laid
With withered roses in the shade;
With withered roses and the fallen peach,
Unlovely, out of reach
Of summer joy that was.
All things that pass
Are woman's tiring-glass;
The faded lavender is sweet,
Sweet the dead violet
Culled and laid by and cared for yet;
The dried-up violets and dried lavender
Still sweet, may comfort her,
Nor need she cry Alas!
Are woman's tiring-glass;
The faded lavender is sweet,
Sweet the dead violet
Culled and laid by and cared for yet;
The dried-up violets and dried lavender
Still sweet, may comfort her,
Nor need she cry Alas!
All things that pass
Are wisdom's looking-glass;
Being full of hope and fear, and still
Brimful of good or ill,
According to our work and will;
For there is nothing new beneath the sun;
Our doings have been done,
And that which shall be was.
Are wisdom's looking-glass;
Being full of hope and fear, and still
Brimful of good or ill,
According to our work and will;
For there is nothing new beneath the sun;
Our doings have been done,
And that which shall be was.
118
“I WILL ARISE.”
Weary and weak,—accept my weariness;
Weary and weak and downcast in my soul,
With hope growing less and less,
And with the goal
Distant and dim,—accept my sore distress.
I thought to reach the goal so long ago,
At outset of the race I dreamed of rest,
Not knowing what now I know
Of breathless haste,
Of long-drawn straining effort across the waste.
Weary and weak and downcast in my soul,
With hope growing less and less,
And with the goal
Distant and dim,—accept my sore distress.
I thought to reach the goal so long ago,
At outset of the race I dreamed of rest,
Not knowing what now I know
Of breathless haste,
Of long-drawn straining effort across the waste.
One only thing I knew, Thy love of me;
One only thing I know, Thy sacred same
Love of me full and free,
A craving flame
Of selfless love of me which burns in Thee.
How can I think of Thee, and yet grow chill;
Of Thee, and yet grow cold and nigh to death?
Re-energize my will,
Rebuild my faith;
I will arise and run, Thou giving me breath.
One only thing I know, Thy sacred same
Love of me full and free,
A craving flame
Of selfless love of me which burns in Thee.
How can I think of Thee, and yet grow chill;
Of Thee, and yet grow cold and nigh to death?
Re-energize my will,
Rebuild my faith;
I will arise and run, Thou giving me breath.
I will arise, repenting and in pain;
I will arise, and smite upon my breast
And turn to Thee again;
Thou choosest best,
Lead me along the road Thou makest plain.
Lead me a little way, and carry me
A little way, and hearken to my sighs,
And store my tears with Thee,
And deign replies
To feeble prayers;—O Lord, I will arise.
I will arise, and smite upon my breast
And turn to Thee again;
Thou choosest best,
Lead me along the road Thou makest plain.
Lead me a little way, and carry me
A little way, and hearken to my sighs,
And store my tears with Thee,
And deign replies
To feeble prayers;—O Lord, I will arise.
A PRODIGAL SON.
Does that lamp still burn in my Father's house,
Which he kindled the night I went away?
I turned once beneath the cedar boughs,
And marked it gleam with a golden ray;
Did he think to light me home some day?
Which he kindled the night I went away?
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And marked it gleam with a golden ray;
Did he think to light me home some day?
Hungry here with the crunching swine,
Hungry harvest have I to reap;
In a dream I count my Father's kine,
I hear the tinkling bells of his sheep,
I watch his lambs that browse and leap.
Hungry harvest have I to reap;
In a dream I count my Father's kine,
I hear the tinkling bells of his sheep,
I watch his lambs that browse and leap.
There is plenty of bread at home,
His servants have bread enough and to spare;
The purple wine-fat froths with foam,
Oil and spices make sweet the air,
While I perish hungry and bare.
His servants have bread enough and to spare;
The purple wine-fat froths with foam,
Oil and spices make sweet the air,
While I perish hungry and bare.
Rich and blessed those servants, rather
Than I who see not my Father's face!
I will arise and go to my Father:—
“Fallen from sonship, beggared of grace,
Grant me, Father, a servant's place.”
Than I who see not my Father's face!
I will arise and go to my Father:—
“Fallen from sonship, beggared of grace,
Grant me, Father, a servant's place.”
SOEUR LOUISE DE LA MISÉRICORDE. (1674.)
I have desired, and I have been desired;
But now the days are over of desire,
Now dust and dying embers mock my fire;
Where is the hire for which my life was hired?
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
But now the days are over of desire,
Now dust and dying embers mock my fire;
Where is the hire for which my life was hired?
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Longing and love, pangs of a perished pleasure,
Longing and love, a disenkindled fire,
And memory a bottomless gulf of mire,
And love a fount of tears outrunning measure;
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Longing and love, a disenkindled fire,
And memory a bottomless gulf of mire,
And love a fount of tears outrunning measure;
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Now from my heart, love's deathbed, trickles, trickles,
Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire,
The dross of life, of love, of spent desire;
Alas, my rose of life gone all to prickles,—
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Drop by drop slowly, drop by drop of fire,
The dross of life, of love, of spent desire;
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Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Oh vanity of vanities, desire;
Stunting my hope which might have strained up higher,
Turning my garden plot to barren mire;
Oh death-struck love, oh disenkindled fire,
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Stunting my hope which might have strained up higher,
Turning my garden plot to barren mire;
Oh death-struck love, oh disenkindled fire,
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
AN “IMMURATA” SISTER.
Life flows down to death; we cannot bind
That current that it should not flee:
Life flows down to death, as rivers find
The inevitable sea.
That current that it should not flee:
Life flows down to death, as rivers find
The inevitable sea.
Men work and think, but women feel;
And so (for I'm a woman, I)
And so I should be glad to die
And cease from impotence of zeal,
And cease from hope, and cease from dread,
And cease from yearnings without gain,
And cease from all this world of pain,
And be at peace among the dead.
And so (for I'm a woman, I)
And so I should be glad to die
And cease from impotence of zeal,
And cease from hope, and cease from dread,
And cease from yearnings without gain,
And cease from all this world of pain,
And be at peace among the dead.
Hearts that die, by death renew their youth,
Lightened of this life that doubts and dies;
Silent and contented, while the Truth
Unveiled makes them wise.
Lightened of this life that doubts and dies;
Silent and contented, while the Truth
Unveiled makes them wise.
Why should I seek and never find
That something which I have not had?
Fair and unutterably sad
The world hath sought time out of mind;
The world hath sought and I have sought,—
Ah, empty world and empty I!
For we have spent our strength for nought,
And soon it will be time to die.
That something which I have not had?
Fair and unutterably sad
The world hath sought time out of mind;
The world hath sought and I have sought,—
Ah, empty world and empty I!
For we have spent our strength for nought,
And soon it will be time to die.
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Sparks fly upward toward their fount of fire,
Kindling, flashing, hovering:—
Kindle, flash, my soul; mount higher and higher,
Thou whole burnt-offering!
Kindling, flashing, hovering:—
Kindle, flash, my soul; mount higher and higher,
Thou whole burnt-offering!
“IF THOU SAYEST, BEHOLD, WE KNEW IT NOT.”
—Proverbs xxiv. 11, 12.
1
I have done I know not what,—what have I done?My brother's blood, my brother's soul, doth cry:
And I find no defence, find no reply,
No courage more to run this race I run
Not knowing what I have done, have left undone;
Ah me, these awful unknown hours that fly
Fruitless it may be, fleeting fruitless by
Rank with death-savour underneath the sun.
For what avails it that I did not know
The deed I did? what profits me the plea
That had I known I had not wronged him so?
Lord Jesus Christ, my God, him pity Thou;
Lord, if it may be, pity also me:
In judgment pity, and in death, and now.
2
Thou Who hast borne all burdens, bear our load,Bear Thou our load whatever load it be;
Our guilt, our shame, our helpless misery,
Bear Thou Who only canst, O God my God.
Seek us and find us, for we cannot Thee
Or seek or find or hold or cleave unto:
We cannot do or undo; Lord, undo
Our self-undoing, for Thine is the key
Of all we are not tho' we might have been.
Dear Lord, if ever mercy moved Thy mind,
If so be love of us can move Thee yet,
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Remember us,—yea, how shouldst Thou forget?
Remember us for good, and seek, and find.
3
Each soul I might have succoured, may have slain,All souls shall face me at the last Appeal,
That great last moment poised for woe or weal,
That final moment for man's bliss or bane.
Vanity of vanities, yea all is vain
Which then will not avail or help or heal:
Disfeatured faces, worn-out knees that kneel,
Will more avail than strength or beauty then.
Lord, by Thy Passion,—when Thy Face was marred
In sight of earth and hell tumultuous,
And Thy heart failed in Thee like melting wax,
And Thy Blood dropped more precious than the nard,—
Lord, for Thy sake, not our's, supply our lacks,
For Thine own sake, not our's, Christ, pity us.
THE THREAD OF LIFE.
1
The irresponsive silence of the land,The irresponsive sounding of the sea,
Speak both one message of one sense to me:—
Aloof, aloof, we stand aloof, so stand
Thou too aloof bound with the flawless band
Of inner solitude; we bind not thee;
But who from thy self-chain shall set thee free?
What heart shall touch thy heart? what hand thy hand?—
And I am sometimes proud and sometimes meek,
And sometimes I remember days of old
When fellowship seemed not so far to seek
And all the world and I seemed much less cold,
And at the rainbow's foot lay surely gold,
And hope felt strong and life itself not weak.
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2
Thus am I mine own prison. EverythingAround me free and sunny and at ease:
Or if in shadow, in a shade of trees
Which the sun kisses, where the gay birds sing
And where all winds make various murmuring;
Where bees are found, with honey for the bees;
Where sounds are music, and where silences
Are music of an unlike fashioning.
Then gaze I at the merrymaking crew,
And smile a moment and a moment sigh
Thinking: Why can I not rejoice with you?
But soon I put the foolish fancy by:
I am not what I have nor what I do;
But what I was I am, I am even I.
3
Therefore myself is that one only thingI hold to use or waste, to keep or give;
My sole possession every day I live,
And still mine own despite Time's winnowing.
Ever mine own, while moons and seasons bring
From crudeness ripeness mellow and sanative;
Ever mine own, till Death shall ply his sieve;
And still mine own, when saints break grave and sing.
And this myself as king unto my King
I give, to Him Who gave Himself for me;
Who gives Himself to me, and bids me sing
A sweet new song of His redeemed set free;
He bids me sing: O death, where is thy sting?
And sing: O grave, where is thy victory?
AN OLD-WORLD THICKET.
------ “Una selva oscura.”
Dante.
Dante.
Awake or sleeping (for I know not which)
I was or was not mazed within a wood
Where every mother-bird brought up her brood
Safe in some leafy niche
Of oak or ash, of cypress or of beech,
I was or was not mazed within a wood
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Safe in some leafy niche
Of oak or ash, of cypress or of beech,
Of silvery aspen trembling delicately,
Of plane or warmer-tinted sycomore,
Of elm that dies in secret from the core,
Of ivy weak and free,
Of pines, of all green lofty things that be.
Of plane or warmer-tinted sycomore,
Of elm that dies in secret from the core,
Of ivy weak and free,
Of pines, of all green lofty things that be.
Such birds they seemed as challenged each desire;
Like spots of azure heaven upon the wing,
Like downy emeralds that alight and sing,
Like actual coals on fire,
Like anything they seemed, and everything.
Like spots of azure heaven upon the wing,
Like downy emeralds that alight and sing,
Like actual coals on fire,
Like anything they seemed, and everything.
Such mirth they made, such warblings and such chat
With tongue of music in a well-tuned beak,
They seemed to speak more wisdom than we speak,
To make our music flat
And all our subtlest reasonings wild or weak.
With tongue of music in a well-tuned beak,
They seemed to speak more wisdom than we speak,
To make our music flat
And all our subtlest reasonings wild or weak.
Their meat was nought but flowers like butterflies,
With berries coral-coloured or like gold;
Their drink was only dew, which blossoms hold
Deep where the honey lies;
Their wings and tails were lit by sparkling eyes.
With berries coral-coloured or like gold;
Their drink was only dew, which blossoms hold
Deep where the honey lies;
Their wings and tails were lit by sparkling eyes.
The shade wherein they revelled was a shade
That danced and twinkled to the unseen sun;
Branches and leaves cast shadows one by one,
And all their shadows swayed
In breaths of air that rustled and that played.
That danced and twinkled to the unseen sun;
Branches and leaves cast shadows one by one,
And all their shadows swayed
In breaths of air that rustled and that played.
A sound of waters neither rose nor sank,
And spread a sense of freshness through the air;
It seemed not here or there, but everywhere,
As if the whole earth drank,
Root fathom deep and strawberry on its bank.
And spread a sense of freshness through the air;
It seemed not here or there, but everywhere,
As if the whole earth drank,
Root fathom deep and strawberry on its bank.
But I who saw such things as I have said,
Was overdone with utter weariness;
And walked in care, as one whom fears oppress
Because above his head
Death hangs, or damage, or the dearth of bread.
Was overdone with utter weariness;
And walked in care, as one whom fears oppress
Because above his head
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Each sore defeat of my defeated life
Faced and outfaced me in that bitter hour;
And turned to yearning palsy all my power,
And all my peace to strife,
Self stabbing self with keen lack-pity knife.
Faced and outfaced me in that bitter hour;
And turned to yearning palsy all my power,
And all my peace to strife,
Self stabbing self with keen lack-pity knife.
Sweetness of beauty moved me to despair,
Stung me to anger by its mere content,
Made me all lonely on that way I went,
Piled care upon my care,
Brimmed full my cup, and stripped me empty and bare:
Stung me to anger by its mere content,
Made me all lonely on that way I went,
Piled care upon my care,
Brimmed full my cup, and stripped me empty and bare:
For all that was but showed what all was not,
But gave clear proof of what might never be;
Making more destitute my poverty,
And yet more blank my lot,
And me much sadder by its jubilee.
But gave clear proof of what might never be;
Making more destitute my poverty,
And yet more blank my lot,
And me much sadder by its jubilee.
Therefore I sat me down: for wherefore walk?
And closed mine eyes: for wherefore see or hear?
Alas, I had no shutter to mine ear,
And could not shun the talk
Of all rejoicing creatures far or near.
And closed mine eyes: for wherefore see or hear?
Alas, I had no shutter to mine ear,
And could not shun the talk
Of all rejoicing creatures far or near.
Without my will I hearkened and I heard
(Asleep or waking, for I know not which),
Till note by note the music changed its pitch;
Bird ceased to answer bird,
And every wind sighed softly if it stirred.
(Asleep or waking, for I know not which),
Till note by note the music changed its pitch;
Bird ceased to answer bird,
And every wind sighed softly if it stirred.
The drip of widening waters seemed to weep,
All fountains sobbed and gurgled as they sprang,
Somewhere a cataract cried out in its leap
Sheer down a headlong steep;
High over all cloud-thunders gave a clang.
All fountains sobbed and gurgled as they sprang,
Somewhere a cataract cried out in its leap
Sheer down a headlong steep;
High over all cloud-thunders gave a clang.
Such universal sound of lamentation
I heard and felt, fain not to feel or hear;
Nought else there seemed but anguish far and near;
Nought else but all creation
Moaning and groaning wrung by pain or fear,
I heard and felt, fain not to feel or hear;
Nought else there seemed but anguish far and near;
Nought else but all creation
Moaning and groaning wrung by pain or fear,
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Shuddering in the misery of its doom:
My heart then rose a rebel against light,
Scouring all earth and heaven and depth and height,
Ingathering wrath and gloom,
Ingathering wrath to wrath and night to night.
My heart then rose a rebel against light,
Scouring all earth and heaven and depth and height,
Ingathering wrath and gloom,
Ingathering wrath to wrath and night to night.
Ah me, the bitterness of such revolt,
All impotent, all hateful, and all hate,
That kicks and breaks itself against the bolt
Of an imprisoning fate,
And vainly shakes, and cannot shake the gate.
All impotent, all hateful, and all hate,
That kicks and breaks itself against the bolt
Of an imprisoning fate,
And vainly shakes, and cannot shake the gate.
Agony to agony, deep called to deep,
Out of the deep I called of my desire;
My strength was weakness and my heart was fire;
Mine eyes that would not weep
Or sleep, scaled height and depth, and could not sleep;
Out of the deep I called of my desire;
My strength was weakness and my heart was fire;
Mine eyes that would not weep
Or sleep, scaled height and depth, and could not sleep;
The eyes, I mean, of my rebellious soul,
For still my bodily eyes were closed and dark:
A random thing I seemed without a mark,
Racing without a goal,
Adrift upon life's sea without an ark.
For still my bodily eyes were closed and dark:
A random thing I seemed without a mark,
Racing without a goal,
Adrift upon life's sea without an ark.
More leaden than the actual self of lead
Outer and inner darkness weighed on me.
The tide of anger ebbed. Then fierce and free
Surged full above my head
The moaning tide of helpless misery.
Outer and inner darkness weighed on me.
The tide of anger ebbed. Then fierce and free
Surged full above my head
The moaning tide of helpless misery.
Why should I breathe, whose breath was but a sigh?
Why should I live, who drew such painful breath?
Oh weary work, the unanswerable why!—
Yet I, why should I die,
Who had no hope in life, no hope in death?
Why should I live, who drew such painful breath?
Oh weary work, the unanswerable why!—
Yet I, why should I die,
Who had no hope in life, no hope in death?
Grasses and mosses and the fallen leaf
Make peaceful bed for an indefinite term;
But underneath the grass there gnaws a worm—
Haply, there gnaws a grief—
Both, haply always; not, as now, so brief.
Make peaceful bed for an indefinite term;
But underneath the grass there gnaws a worm—
Haply, there gnaws a grief—
Both, haply always; not, as now, so brief.
The pleasure I remember, it is past;
The pain I feel, is passing passing by;
Thus all the world is passing, and thus I:
All things that cannot last
Have grown familiar, and are born to die.
The pain I feel, is passing passing by;
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All things that cannot last
Have grown familiar, and are born to die.
And being familiar, have so long been borne
That habit trains us not to break but bend:
Mourning grows natural to us who mourn
In foresight of an end,
But that which ends not who shall brave or mend?
That habit trains us not to break but bend:
Mourning grows natural to us who mourn
In foresight of an end,
But that which ends not who shall brave or mend?
Surely the ripe fruits tremble on their bough,
They cling and linger trembling till they drop:
I, trembling, cling to dying life; for how
Face the perpetual Now?
Birthless and deathless, void of start or stop,
They cling and linger trembling till they drop:
I, trembling, cling to dying life; for how
Face the perpetual Now?
Birthless and deathless, void of start or stop,
Void of repentance, void of hope and fear,
Of possibility, alternative,
Of all that ever made us bear to live
From night to morning here,
Of promise even which has no gift to give.
Of possibility, alternative,
Of all that ever made us bear to live
From night to morning here,
Of promise even which has no gift to give.
The wood, and every creature of the wood,
Seemed mourning with me in an undertone;
Soft scattered chirpings and a windy moan,
Trees rustling where they stood
And shivered, showed compassion for my mood.
Seemed mourning with me in an undertone;
Soft scattered chirpings and a windy moan,
Trees rustling where they stood
And shivered, showed compassion for my mood.
Rage to despair; and now despair had turned
Back to self-pity and mere weariness,
With yearnings like a smouldering fire that burned,
And might grow more or less,
And might die out or wax to white excess.
Back to self-pity and mere weariness,
With yearnings like a smouldering fire that burned,
And might grow more or less,
And might die out or wax to white excess.
Without, within me, music seemed to be;
Something not music, yet most musical,
Silence and sound in heavenly harmony;
At length a pattering fall
Of feet, a bell, and bleatings, broke through all.
Something not music, yet most musical,
Silence and sound in heavenly harmony;
At length a pattering fall
Of feet, a bell, and bleatings, broke through all.
Then I looked up. The wood lay in a glow
From golden sunset and from ruddy sky;
The sun had stooped to earth though once so high;
Had stooped to earth, in slow
Warm dying loveliness brought near and low.
From golden sunset and from ruddy sky;
The sun had stooped to earth though once so high;
Had stooped to earth, in slow
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Each water drop made answer to the light,
Lit up a spark and showed the sun his face;
Soft purple shadows paved the grassy space
And crept from height to height,
From height to loftier height crept up apace.
Lit up a spark and showed the sun his face;
Soft purple shadows paved the grassy space
And crept from height to height,
From height to loftier height crept up apace.
While opposite the sun a gazing moon
Put on his glory for her coronet,
Kindling her luminous coldness to its noon,
As his great splendour set;
One only star made up her train as yet.
Put on his glory for her coronet,
Kindling her luminous coldness to its noon,
As his great splendour set;
One only star made up her train as yet.
Each twig was tipped with gold, each leaf was edged
And veined with gold from the gold-flooded west;
Each mother-bird, and mate-bird, and unfledged
Nestling, and curious nest,
Displayed a gilded moss or beak or breast.
And veined with gold from the gold-flooded west;
Each mother-bird, and mate-bird, and unfledged
Nestling, and curious nest,
Displayed a gilded moss or beak or breast.
And filing peacefully between the trees,
Having the moon behind them, and the sun
Full in their meek mild faces, walked at ease
A homeward flock, at peace
With one another and with every one.
Having the moon behind them, and the sun
Full in their meek mild faces, walked at ease
A homeward flock, at peace
With one another and with every one.
A patriarchal ram with tinkling bell
Led all his kin; sometimes one browsing sheep
Hung back a moment, or one lamb would leap
And frolic in a dell;
Yet still they kept together, journeying well,
Led all his kin; sometimes one browsing sheep
Hung back a moment, or one lamb would leap
And frolic in a dell;
Yet still they kept together, journeying well,
And bleating, one or other, many or few,
Journeying together toward the sunlit west;
Mild face by face, and woolly breast by breast,
Patient, sun-brightened too,
Still journeying toward the sunset and their rest.
Journeying together toward the sunlit west;
Mild face by face, and woolly breast by breast,
Patient, sun-brightened too,
Still journeying toward the sunset and their rest.
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“ALL THY WORKS PRAISE THEE, O LORD.” A PROCESSIONAL OF CREATION.
ALL.I all-creation sing my song of praise
To God Who made me and vouchsafes my days,
And sends me forth by multitudinous ways.
SERAPH.
I, like my Brethren, burn eternally
With love of Him Who is Love, and loveth me;
The Holy, Holy, Holy Unity.
CHERUB.
I, with my Brethren, gaze eternally
On Him Who is Wisdom, and Who knoweth me;
The Holy, Holy, Holy Trinity.
ALL ANGELS.
We rule, we serve, we work, we store His treasure,
Whose vessels are we brimmed with strength and pleasure;
Our joys fulfil, yea, overfill our measure.
HEAVENS.
We float before the Presence Infinite,
We cluster round the Throne in our delight,
Revolving and rejoicing in God's sight.
FIRMAMENT.
I, blue and beautiful, and framed of air,
At sunrise and at sunset grow most fair;
His glory by my glories I declare.
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We Powers are powers because He makes us strong;
Wherefore we roll all rolling orbs along,
We move all moving things, and sing our song.
SUN.
I blaze to Him in mine engarlanding
Of rays, I flame His whole burnt-offering,
While as a bridegroom I rejoice and sing.
MOON.
I follow, and am fair, and do His Will;
Thro' all my changes I am faithful still,
Full-orbed or strait His mandate to fulfil.
STARS.
We Star-hosts numerous, innumerous,
Throng space with energy untumultuous,
And work His Will Whose eye beholdeth us.
GALAXIES AND NEBULAE.
No thing is far or near; and therefore we
Float neither far nor near; but where we be
Weave dances round the Throne perpetually.
COMETS AND METEORS.
Our lights dart here and there, whirl to and fro,
We flash and vanish, we die down and glow;
All doing His Will Who bids us do it so.
SHOWERS.
We give ourselves; and be we great or small,
Thus are we made like Him Who giveth all,
Like Him Whose gracious pleasure bids us fall.
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We give ourselves in silent secret ways,
Spending and spent in silence full of grace;
And thus are made like God, and show His praise.
WINDS.
We sift the air and winnow all the earth;
And God Who poised our weights and weighs our worth
Accepts the worship of our solemn mirth.
FIRE.
My power and strength are His Who fashioned me,
Ordained me image of His Jealousy,
Forged me His weapon fierce exceedingly.
HEAT.
I glow unto His glory, and do good:
I glow, and bring to life both bud and brood;
I glow, and ripen harvest-crops for food.
WINTER AND SUMMER.
Our wealth and joys and beauties celebrate
His wealth of beauty Who sustains our state,
Before Whose changelessness we alternate.
SPRING AND AUTUMN.
I hope,—
And I remember,—
We give place
Either to other with contented grace,
Acceptable and lovely all our days.
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I make the unstable stable, binding fast
The world of waters prone to ripple past:
Thus praise I God, Whose mercies I forecast.
COLD.
I rouse and goad the slothful apt to nod,
I stir and urge the laggards with my rod:
My praise is not of men, yet I praise God.
SNOW.
My whiteness shadoweth Him Who is most fair,
All spotless: yea, my whiteness which I wear
Exalts His Purity beyond compare.
VAPOURS.
We darken sun and moon, and blot the day,
The good Will of our Maker to obey:
Till to the glory of God we pass away.
NIGHT.
Moon and all stars I don for diadem
To make me fair: I cast myself and them
Before His feet, Who knows us gem from gem.
DAY.
I shout before Him in my plentitude
Of light and warmth, of hope and wealth and food;
Ascribing all good to the Only Good.
LIGHT AND DARKNESS.
I am God's dwelling-place,—
And also I
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Lo, we bide and fly
Exulting in the Will of God Most High.
LIGHTNING AND THUNDER.
We indivisible flash forth His Fame,
We thunder forth the glory of His Name,
In harmony of resonance and flame.
CLOUDS.
Sweet is our store, exhaled from sea or river:
We wear a rainbow, praising God the Giver
Because His mercy is for ever and ever.
EARTH.
I rest in Him rejoicing: resting so
And so rejoicing, in that I am low;
Yet known of Him, and following on to know.
MOUNTAINS.
Our heights which laud Him, sink abased before
Him higher than the highest evermore:
God higher than the highest we adore.
HILLS.
We green-tops praise Him, and we fruitful heads,
Whereon the sunshine and the dew He sheds:
We green-tops praise Him, rising from our beds.
GREEN THINGS.
We all green things, we blossoms bright or dim,
Trees, bushes, brushwood, corn and grasses slim,
We lift our many-favoured lauds to Him.
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I praise Him on my thorn which I adorn,—
And I, amid my world of thistle and thorn,—
And I, within my veil where I am born.
APPLE,—CITRON,—POMEGRANATE.
We Apple-blossom, Citron, Pomegranate,
We clothed of God without our toil and fret,
We offer fatness where His Throne is set.
VINE,—CEDAR,—PALM.
I proffer Him my sweetness, who am sweet,—
I bow my strength in fragrance at His feet,—
I wave myself before His Judgment Seat.
MEDICINAL HERBS.
I bring refreshment,—
I bring ease and calm,—
I lavish strength and healing,—
I am balm,—
We work His pitiful Will and chant our psalm.
A SPRING.
Clear my pure fountain, clear and pure my rill,
My fountain and mine outflow deep and still,
I set His semblance forth and do His Will.
SEA.
Today I praise God with a sparkling face,
My thousand thousand waves all uttering praise:
Tomorrow I commit me to His Grace.
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We spring and swell meandering to and fro,
From height to depth, from depth to depth we flow,
We fertilize the world, and praise Him so.
WHALES AND SEA MAMMALS.
We Whales and Monsters gambol in His sight
Rejoicing every day and every night,
Safe in the tender keeping of His Might.
FISHES.
Our fashions and our colours and our speeds
Set forth His praise Who framed us and Who feeds,
Who knows our number and regards our needs.
BIRDS.
Winged Angels of this visible world, we fly
To sing God's praises in the lofty sky;
We scale the height to praise our Lord most High.
EAGLE AND DOVE.
I the sun-gazing Eagle,—
I the Dove
With plumes of softness and a note of love,—
We praise by divers gifts One God above.
BEASTS AND CATTLE.
We forest Beasts,—
We Beasts of hill or cave,—
We border-loving Creatures of the wave,—
We praise our King with voices deep and grave.
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God forms us weak and small, but pours out all
We need, and notes us while we stand or fall:
Wherefore we praise Him, weak and safe and small.
LAMB.
I praise my loving Lord, Who maketh me
His type by harmless sweet simplicity:
Yet He the Lamb of lambs incomparably.
LION.
I praise the Lion of the Royal Race,
Strongest in fight and swiftest in the chase:
With all my might I leap and lavish praise.
ALL MEN.
All creatures sing around us, and we sing:
We bring our own selves as our offering,
Our very selves we render to our King.
ISRAEL.
Flock of our Shepherd's pasture and His fold,
Purchased and well-beloved from days of old,
We tell His praise which still remains untold.
PRIESTS.
We free-will Shepherds tend His sheep and feed;
We follow Him while caring for their need;
We follow praising Him, and them we lead.
SERVANTS OF GOD.
We love God, for He loves us; we are free
In serving Him, who serve Him willingly:
As kings we reign, and praise His Majesty.
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All humble souls He calls and sanctifies;
All holy souls He calls to make them wise;
Accepting all, His free-will sacrifice.
BABES.
He maketh me,—
And me,—
And me,—
To be
His blessed little ones around His knee,
Who praise Him by mere love confidingly.
WOMEN.
God makes our service love, and makes our wage
Love: so we wend on patient pilgrimage,
Extolling Him by love from age to age.
MEN.
God gives us power to rule: He gives us power
To rule ourselves, and prune the exuberant flower
Of youth, and worship Him hour after hour.
SPIRITS AND SOULS—
Lo, in the hidden world we chant our chant
To Him Who fills us that we nothing want,
To Him Whose bounty leaves our craving scant.
OF BABES—
With milky mouths we praise God, from the breast
Called home betimes to rest the perfect rest,
By love and joy fulfilling His behest.
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We praise His Will which made us what He would,
His Will which fashioned us and called us good,
His Will our plenary beatitude.
OF MEN.
We praise His Will Who bore with us so long,
Who out of weakness wrought us swift and strong,
Champions of right and putters-down of wrong.
ALL.
Let everything that hath or hath not breath,
Let days and endless days, let life and death,
Praise God, praise God, praise God, His creature saith.
LATER LIFE: A DOUBLE SONNET OF SONNETS.
1.
Before the mountains were brought forth, beforeEarth and the world were made, then God was God:
And God will still be God, when flames shall roar
Round earth and heaven dissolving at His nod:
And this God is our God, even while His rod
Of righteous wrath falls on us smiting sore:
And this God is our God for evermore
Thro' life, thro' death, while clod returns to clod.
For tho' He slay us we will trust in Him;
We will flock home to Him by divers ways:
Yea, tho' He slay us we will vaunt His praise,
Serving and loving with the Cherubim,
Watching and loving with the Seraphim,
Our very selves His praise thro' endless days.
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2.
Rend hearts and rend not garments for our sins;Gird sackcloth not on body but on soul;
Grovel in dust with faces toward the goal
Nor won, nor neared: he only laughs who wins.
Not neared the goal, the race too late begins;
All left undone, we have yet to do the whole;
The sun is hurrying west and toward the pole
Where darkness waits for earth with all her kins.
Let us today while it is called today
Set out, if utmost speed may yet avail—
The shadows lengthen and the light grows pale:
For who thro' darkness and the shadow of death,
Darkness that may be felt, shall find a way,
Blind-eyed, deaf-eared, and choked with failing breath?
3.
Thou Who didst make and knowest whereof we are made,Oh bear in mind our dust and nothingness,
Our wordless tearless dumbness of distress:
Bear Thou in mind the burden Thou hast laid
Upon us, and our feebleness unstayed
Except Thou stay us: for the long long race
Which stretches far and far before our face
Thou knowest,—remember Thou whereof we are made.
If making makes us Thine then Thine we are,
And if redemption we are twice Thine own:
If once Thou didst come down from heaven afar
To seek us and to find us, how not save?
Comfort us, save us, leave us not alone,
Thou Who didst die our death and fill our grave.
4.
So tired am I, so weary of today,So unrefreshed from foregone weariness,
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So lagging and so stumbling on my way,
I scarce can rouse myself to watch or pray,
To hope, or aim, or toil for more or less,—
Ah, always less and less, even while I press
Forward and toil and aim as best I may.
Half-starved of soul and heartsick utterly,
Yet lift I up my heart and soul and eyes
(Which fail in looking upward) toward the prize:
Me, Lord, Thou seest tho' I see not Thee;
Me now, as once the Thief in Paradise,
Even me, O Lord my Lord, remember me.
5.
Lord, Thou Thyself art Love and only Thou;Yet I who am not love would fain love Thee;
But Thou alone being Love canst furnish me
With that same love my heart is craving now.
Allow my plea! for if Thou disallow,
No second fountain can I find but Thee;
No second hope or help is left to me,
No second anything, but only Thou.
O Love accept, according my request;
O Love exhaust, fulfilling my desire:
Uphold me with the strength that cannot tire,
Nerve me to labour till Thou bid me rest,
Kindle my fire from Thine unkindled fire,
And charm the willing heart from out my breast.
6.
We lack, yet cannot fix upon the lack:Not this, nor that; yet somewhat, certainly.
We see the things we do not yearn to see
Around us: and what see we glancing back?
Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the rack,
Hopes that were never ours yet seemed to be,
For which we steered on life's salt stormy sea
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If thus to look behind is all in vain,
And all in vain to look to left or right,
Why face we not our future once again,
Launching with hardier hearts across the main,
Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible sight,
And strong to bear ourselves in patient pain?
7.
To love and to remember; that is good:To love and to forget; that is not well:
To lapse from love to hatred; that is hell
And death and torment, rightly understood.
Soul dazed by love and sorrow, cheer thy mood;
More blest art thou than mortal tongue can tell:
Ring not thy funeral but thy marriage bell,
And salt with hope thy life's insipid food.
Love is the goal, love is the way we wend,
Love is our parallel unending line
Whose only perfect Parallel is Christ,
Beginning not begun, End without end:
For He Who hath the Heart of God sufficed,
Can satisfy all hearts,—yea, thine and mine.
8.
We feel and see with different hearts and eyes:—Ah Christ, if all our hearts could meet in Thee
How well it were for them and well for me,
Our hearts Thy dear accepted sacrifice.
Thou, only Life of hearts and Light of eyes,
Our life, our light, if once we turn to Thee,
So be it, O Lord, to them and so to me;
Be all alike Thine own dear sacrifice.
Thou Who by death hast ransomed us from death,
Thyself God's sole well-pleasing Sacrifice,
Thine only sacred Self I plead with Thee:
Make Thou it well for them and well for me
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And hearts to love Thee, and to see Thee eyes.
9.
Star Sirius and the Pole Star dwell afarBeyond the drawings each of other's strength:
One blazes thro' the brief bright summer's length
Lavishing life-heat from a flaming car;
While one unchangeable upon a throne
Broods o'er the frozen heart of earth alone,
Content to reign the bright particular star
Of some who wander or of some who groan.
They own no drawings each of other's strength,
Nor vibrate in a visible sympathy,
Nor veer along their courses each toward each:
Yet are their orbits pitched in harmony
Of one dear heaven, across whose depth and length
Mayhap they talk together without speech.
10.
Tread softly! all the earth is holy ground.It may be, could we look with seeing eyes,
This spot we stand on is a Paradise
Where dead have come to life and lost been found,
Where Faith has triumphed, Martyrdom been crowned,
Where fools have foiled the wisdom of the wise;
From this same spot the dust of saints may rise,
And the King's prisoners come to light unbound.
O earth, earth, earth, hear thou thy Maker's Word:
“Thy dead thou shalt give up, nor hide thy slain”—
Some who went weeping forth shall come again
Rejoicing from the east or from the west,
As doves fly to their windows, love's own bird
Contented and desirous to the nest.
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11.
Lifelong our stumbles, lifelong our regret,Lifelong our efforts failing and renewed,
While lifelong is our witness, “God is good:”
Who bore with us till now, bears with us yet,
Who still remembers and will not forget,
Who gives us light and warmth and daily food;
And gracious promises half understood,
And glories half unveiled, whereon to set
Our heart of hearts and eyes of our desire;
Uplifting us to longing and to love,
Luring us upward from this world of mire,
Urging us to press on and mount above
Ourselves and all we have had experience of,
Mounting to Him in love's perpetual fire.
12.
A dream there is wherein we are fain to scream,While struggling with ourselves we cannot speak:
And much of all our waking life, as weak
And misconceived, eludes us like the dream.
For half life's seemings are not what they seem,
And vain the laughs we laugh, the shrieks we shriek;
Yea, all is vain that mars the settled meek
Contented quiet of our daily theme.
When I was young I deemed that sweets are sweet:
But now I deem some searching bitters are
Sweeter than sweets, and more refreshing far,
And to be relished more, and more desired,
And more to be pursued on eager feet,
On feet untired, and still on feet tho' tired.
13.
Shame is a shadow cast by sin: yet shameItself may be a glory and a grace,
Refashioning the sin-disfashioned face;
A nobler bruit than hollow-sounded fame,
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One virtue pent within an evil place,
Strength for the fight, and swiftness for the race,
A stinging salve, a life-requickening flame.
A salve so searching we may scarcely live,
A flame so fierce it seems that we must die,
An actual cautery thrust into the heart:
Nevertheless, men die not of such smart;
And shame gives back what nothing else can give,
Man to himself,—then sets him up on high.
14.
When Adam and when Eve left ParadiseDid they love on and cling together still,
Forgiving one another all that ill
The twain had wrought on such a different wise?
She propped upon his strength, and he in guise
Of lover tho' of lord, girt to fulfil
Their term of life and die when God should will;
Lie down and sleep, and having slept arise.
Boast not against us, O our enemy!
Today we fall, but we shall rise again;
We grope today, tomorrow we shall see:
What is today that we should fear today?
A morrow cometh which shall sweep away
Thee and thy realm of change and death and pain.
15.
Let woman fear to teach and bear to learn,Remembering the first woman's first mistake.
Eve had for pupil the inquiring snake,
Whose doubts she answered on a great concern;
But he the tables so contrived to turn,
It next was his to give and her's to take;
Till man deemed poison sweet for her sweet sake,
And fired a train by which the world must burn.
Did Adam love his Eve from first to last?
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And wounds us to the quick, yet loves us still.
Love pardons the unpardonable past:
Love in a dominant embrace holds fast
His frailer self, and saves without her will.
16.
Our teachers teach that one and one make two:Later, Love rules that one and one make one:
Abstruse the problems! neither need we shun,
But skilfully to each should yield its due.
The narrower total seems to suit the few,
The wider total suits the common run;
Each obvious in its sphere like moon or sun;
Both provable by me, and both by you.
Befogged and witless, in a wordy maze
A groping stroll perhaps may do us good;
If cloyed we are with much we have understood,
If tired of half our dusty world and ways,
If sick of fasting, and if sick of food;—
And how about these long still-lengthening days?
17.
Something this foggy day, a something whichIs neither of this fog nor of today,
Has set me dreaming of the winds that play
Past certain cliffs, along one certain beach,
And turn the topmost edge of waves to spray:
Ah pleasant pebbly strand so far away,
So out of reach while quite within my reach,
As out of reach as India or Cathay!
I am sick of where I am and where I am not,
I am sick of foresight and of memory,
I am sick of all I have and all I see,
I am sick of self, and there is nothing new;
Oh weary impatient patience of my lot!—
Thus with myself: how fares it, Friends, with you?
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18.
So late in Autumn half the world's asleep,And half the wakeful world looks pinched and pale;
For dampness now, not freshness, rides the gale;
And cold and colourless comes ashore the deep
With tides that bluster or with tides that creep;
Now veiled uncouthness wears an uncouth veil
Of fog, not sultry haze; and blight and bale
Have done their worst, and leaves rot on the heap.
So late in Autumn one forgets the Spring,
Forgets the Summer with its opulence,
The callow birds that long have found a wing,
The swallows that more lately gat them hence:
Will anything like Spring, will anything
Like Summer, rouse one day the slumbering sense?
19.
Here now is Winter. Winter, after all,Is not so drear as was my boding dream
While Autumn gleamed its latest watery gleam
On sapless leafage too inert to fall.
Still leaves and berries clothe my garden wall
Where ivy thrives on scantiest sunny beam;
Still here a bud and there a blossom seem
Hopeful, and robin still is musical.
Leaves, flowers and fruit and one delightful song
Remain; these days are short, but now the nights
Intense and long, hang out their utmost lights;
Such starry nights are long, yet not too long;
Frost nips the weak, while strengthening still the strong
Against that day when Spring sets all to rights.
20.
A hundred thousand birds salute the day:—One solitary bird salutes the night:
Its mellow grieving wiles our grief away,
And tunes our weary watches to delight;
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To know and sing them, and to set them right;
Until we feel once more that May is May,
And hope some buds may bloom without a blight.
This solitary bird outweighs, outvies,
The hundred thousand merry-making birds
Whose innocent warblings yet might make us wise
Would we but follow when they bid us rise,
Would we but set their notes of praise to words
And launch our hearts up with them to the skies.
21.
A host of things I take on trust: I takeThe nightingales on trust, for few and far
Between those actual summer moments are
When I have heard what melody they make.
So chanced it once at Como on the Lake:
But all things, then, waxed musical; each star
Sang on its course, each breeze sang on its car,
All harmonies sang to senses wide awake.
All things in tune, myself not out of tune,
Those nightingales were nightingales indeed:
Yet truly an owl had satisfied my need,
And wrought a rapture underneath that moon,
Or simple sparrow chirping from a reed;
For June that night glowed like a doubled June.
22.
The mountains in their overwhelming mightMoved me to sadness when I saw them first,
And afterwards they moved me to delight;
Struck harmonies from silent chords which burst
Out into song, a song by memory nursed;
For ever unrenewed by touch or sight
Sleeps the keen magic of each day or night,
In pleasure and in wonder then immersed.
All Switzerland behind us on the ascent,
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St. Gothard, garden of forget-me-not:
Yet why should such a flower choose such a spot?
Could we forget that way which once we went
Tho' not one flower had bloomed to weave its crown?
23.
Beyond the seas we know, stretch seas unknownBlue and bright-coloured for our dim and green;
Beyond the lands we see, stretch lands unseen
With many-tinted tangle overgrown;
And icebound seas there are like seas of stone,
Serenely stormless as death lies serene;
And lifeless tracts of sand, which intervene
Betwixt the lands where living flowers are blown.
This dead and living world befits our case
Who live and die: we live in wearied hope,
We die in hope not dead; we run a race
Today, and find no present halting-place;
All things we see lie far within our scope,
And still we peer beyond with craving face.
24.
The wise do send their hearts before them toDear blessed Heaven, despite the veil between;
The foolish nurse their hearts within the screen
Of this familiar world, where all we do
Or have is old, for there is nothing new:
Yet elder far that world we have not seen;
God's Presence antedates what else hath been:
Many the foolish seem, the wise seem few.
Oh foolishest fond folly of a heart
Divided, neither here nor there at rest!
That hankers after Heaven, but clings to earth;
That neither here nor there knows thorough mirth,
Half-choosing, wholly missing, the good part:—
Oh fool among the foolish, in thy quest.
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25.
When we consider what this life we leadIs not, and is: how full of toil and pain,
How blank of rest and of substantial gain,
Beset by hunger earth can never feed,
And propping half our hearts upon a reed;
We cease to mourn lost treasures, mourned in vain,
Lost treasures we are fain and yet not fain
To fetch back for a solace of our need.
For who that feel this burden and this strain,
This wide vacuity of hope and heart,
Would bring their cherished well-beloved again:
To bleed with them and wince beneath the smart,
To have with stinted bliss such lavish bane,
To hold in lieu of all so poor a part?
26.
This Life is full of numbness and of balk,Of haltingness and baffled short-coming,
Of promise unfulfilled, of everything
That is puffed vanity and empty talk:
Its very bud hangs cankered on the stalk,
Its very song-bird trails a broken wing,
Its very Spring is not indeed like Spring,
But sighs like Autumn round an aimless walk.
This Life we live is dead for all its breath;
Death's self it is, set off on pilgrimage,
Travelling with tottering steps the first short stage:
The second stage is one mere desert dust
Where Death sits veiled amid creation's rust:—
Unveil thy face, O Death who art not Death.
27.
I have dreamed of Death:—what will it be to dieNot in a dream, but in the literal truth
With all Death's adjuncts ghastly and uncouth,
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Too dulled, it may be, for a last good-bye,
Too comfortless for any one to soothe,
A helpless charmless spectacle of ruth
Thro' long last hours, so long while yet they fly.
So long to those who hopeless in their fear
Watch the slow breath and look for what they dread:
While I supine with ears that cease to hear,
With eyes that glaze, with heart pulse running down
(Alas! no saint rejoicing on her bed),
May miss the goal at last, may miss a crown.
28.
In life our absent friend is far away:But death may bring our friend exceeding near,
Show him familiar faces long so dear
And lead him back in reach of words we say.
He only cannot utter yea or nay
In any voice accustomed to our ear;
He only cannot make his face appear
And turn the sun back on our shadowed day.
The dead may be around us, dear and dead;
The unforgotten dearest dead may be
Watching us with unslumbering eyes and heart;
Brimful of words which cannot yet be said,
Brimful of knowledge they may not impart,
Brimful of love for you and love for me.
“Quali colombe dal disio chiamate
Con l'ali aperte e ferme al dolce nido
Volan per l'aer dal voler portate.”
Dante.
Con l'ali aperte e ferme al dolce nido
Volan per l'aer dal voler portate.”
Dante.
“FOR THINE OWN SAKE, O MY GOD.”
Wearied of sinning, wearied of repentance,
Wearied of self, I turn, my God, to Thee;
To Thee, my Judge, on Whose all-righteous sentence
Hangs mine eternity:
I turn to Thee, I plead Thyself with Thee,—
Be pitiful to me.
Wearied of self, I turn, my God, to Thee;
To Thee, my Judge, on Whose all-righteous sentence
Hangs mine eternity:
I turn to Thee, I plead Thyself with Thee,—
Be pitiful to me.
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Wearied I loathe myself, I loathe my sinning,
My stains, my festering sores, my misery:
Thou the Beginning, Thou ere my beginning
Didst see and didst foresee
Me miserable, me sinful, ruined me,—
I plead Thyself with Thee.
My stains, my festering sores, my misery:
Thou the Beginning, Thou ere my beginning
Didst see and didst foresee
Me miserable, me sinful, ruined me,—
I plead Thyself with Thee.
I plead Thyself with Thee Who art my Maker,
Regard Thy handiwork that cries to Thee;
I plead Thyself with Thee Who wast partaker
Of mine infirmity,
Love made Thee what Thou art, the love of me,—
I plead Thyself with Thee.
Regard Thy handiwork that cries to Thee;
I plead Thyself with Thee Who wast partaker
Of mine infirmity,
Love made Thee what Thou art, the love of me,—
I plead Thyself with Thee.
UNTIL THE DAY BREAK.
When will the day bring its pleasure?
When will the night bring its rest?
Reaper and gleaner and thresher
Peer toward the east and the west:—
The Sower He knoweth, and He knoweth best.
When will the night bring its rest?
Reaper and gleaner and thresher
Peer toward the east and the west:—
The Sower He knoweth, and He knoweth best.
Meteors flash forth and expire,
Northern lights kindle and pale;
These are the days of desire,
Of eyes looking upward that fail;
Vanishing days as a finishing tale.
Northern lights kindle and pale;
These are the days of desire,
Of eyes looking upward that fail;
Vanishing days as a finishing tale.
Bows down the crop in its glory
Tenfold, fiftyfold, hundredfold;
The millet is ripened and hoary,
The wheat ears are ripened to gold:—
Why keep us waiting in dimness and cold?
Tenfold, fiftyfold, hundredfold;
The millet is ripened and hoary,
The wheat ears are ripened to gold:—
Why keep us waiting in dimness and cold?
The Lord of the harvest, He knoweth
Who knoweth the first and the last:
The Sower Who patiently soweth,
He scanneth the present and past:
He saith, “What thou hast, what remaineth, hold fast.”
Who knoweth the first and the last:
The Sower Who patiently soweth,
He scanneth the present and past:
He saith, “What thou hast, what remaineth, hold fast.”
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Yet, Lord, o'er Thy toil-wearied weepers
The storm-clouds hang muttering and frown:
On threshers and gleaners and reapers,
O Lord of the harvest, look down;
Oh for the harvest, the shout, and the crown!
The storm-clouds hang muttering and frown:
On threshers and gleaners and reapers,
O Lord of the harvest, look down;
Oh for the harvest, the shout, and the crown!
“Not so,” saith the Lord of the reapers,
The Lord of the first and the last:
“O My toilers, My weary, My weepers,
What ye have, what remaineth, hold fast.
Hide in My heart till the vengeance be past.”
The Lord of the first and the last:
“O My toilers, My weary, My weepers,
What ye have, what remaineth, hold fast.
Hide in My heart till the vengeance be past.”
“OF HIM THAT WAS READY TO PERISH.”
Lord, I am waiting, weeping, watching for Thee:
My youth and hope lie by me buried and dead,
My wandering love hath not where to lay its head
Except Thou say “Come to Me.”
My youth and hope lie by me buried and dead,
My wandering love hath not where to lay its head
Except Thou say “Come to Me.”
My noon is ended, abolished from life and light,
My noon is ended, ended and done away,
My sun went down in the hours that still were day,
And my lingering day is night.
My noon is ended, ended and done away,
My sun went down in the hours that still were day,
And my lingering day is night.
How long, O Lord, how long in my desperate pain
Shall I weep and watch, shall I weep and long for Thee?
Is Thy grace ended, Thy love cut off from me?
How long shall I long in vain?
Shall I weep and watch, shall I weep and long for Thee?
Is Thy grace ended, Thy love cut off from me?
How long shall I long in vain?
O God Who before the beginning hast seen the end,
Who hast made me flesh and blood, not frost and not fire,
Who hast filled me full of needs and love and desire
And a heart that craves a friend,
Who hast made me flesh and blood, not frost and not fire,
Who hast filled me full of needs and love and desire
And a heart that craves a friend,
Who hast said “Come to Me and I will give thee rest,”
Who hast said “Take on thee My yoke and learn of Me,”
Who calledst a little child to come to Thee,
And pillowedst John on Thy breast;
Who hast said “Take on thee My yoke and learn of Me,”
Who calledst a little child to come to Thee,
And pillowedst John on Thy breast;
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Who spak'st to women that followed Thee sorrowing,
Bidding them weep for themselves and weep for their own;
Who didst welcome the outlaw adoring Thee all alone,
And plight Thy word as a King,—
Bidding them weep for themselves and weep for their own;
Who didst welcome the outlaw adoring Thee all alone,
And plight Thy word as a King,—
By Thy love of these and of all that ever shall be,
By Thy love of these and of all the born and unborn,
Turn Thy gracious eyes on me and think no scorn
Of me, not even of me.
By Thy love of these and of all the born and unborn,
Turn Thy gracious eyes on me and think no scorn
Of me, not even of me.
Beside Thy Cross I hang on my cross in shame,
My wounds, weakness, extremity cry to Thee:
Bid me also to Paradise, also me
For the glory of Thy Name.
My wounds, weakness, extremity cry to Thee:
Bid me also to Paradise, also me
For the glory of Thy Name.
“BEHOLD THE MAN!”
Shall Christ hang on the Cross, and we not look?Heaven, earth and hell stood gazing at the first,
While Christ for long-cursed man was counted cursed;
Christ, God and Man, Whom God the Father strook
And shamed and sifted and one while forsook:—
Cry shame upon our bodies we have nursed
In sweets, our souls in pride, our spirits immersed
In wilfulness, our steps run all acrook.
Cry shame upon us! for He bore our shame
In agony, and we look on at ease
With neither hearts on flame nor cheeks on flame:
What hast thou, what have I, to do with peace?
Not to send peace but send a sword He came,
And fire and fasts and tearful night-watches.
THE DESCENT FROM THE CROSS.
Is this the Face that thrills with aweSeraphs who veil their face above?
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The Face that is the Face of Love?
Yea, this defaced, a lifeless clod,
Hath all creation's love sufficed,
Hath satisfied the love of God,
This Face the Face of Jesus Christ.
“IT IS FINISHED.”
Dear Lord, let me recount to Thee
Some of the great things Thou hast done
For me, even me
Thy little one.
Some of the great things Thou hast done
For me, even me
Thy little one.
It was not I that cared for Thee,—
But Thou didst set Thy heart upon
Me, even me
Thy little one.
But Thou didst set Thy heart upon
Me, even me
Thy little one.
And therefore was it sweet to Thee
To leave Thy Majesty and Throne,
And grow like me
A Little One,
To leave Thy Majesty and Throne,
And grow like me
A Little One,
A swaddled Baby on the knee
Of a dear Mother of Thine own,
Quite weak like me
Thy little one.
Of a dear Mother of Thine own,
Quite weak like me
Thy little one.
Thou didst assume my misery,
And reap the harvest I had sown,
Comforting me
Thy little one.
And reap the harvest I had sown,
Comforting me
Thy little one.
Jerusalem and Galilee,—
Thy love embraced not those alone,
But also me
Thy little one.
Thy love embraced not those alone,
But also me
Thy little one.
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Thy unblemished Body on the Tree
Was bared and broken to atone
For me, for me
Thy little one.
Was bared and broken to atone
For me, for me
Thy little one.
Thou lovedst me upon the Tree,—
Still me, hid by the ponderous stone,—
Me always,—me
Thy little one.
Still me, hid by the ponderous stone,—
Me always,—me
Thy little one.
And love of me arose with Thee
When death and hell lay overthrown:
Thou lovedst me
Thy little one.
When death and hell lay overthrown:
Thou lovedst me
Thy little one.
And love of me went up with Thee
To sit upon Thy Father's Throne:
Thou lovest me
Thy little one.
To sit upon Thy Father's Throne:
Thou lovest me
Thy little one.
Lord, as Thou me, so would I Thee
Love in pure love's communion,
For Thou lov'st me
Thy little one:
Love in pure love's communion,
For Thou lov'st me
Thy little one:
Which love of me bring back with Thee
To Judgment when the Trump is blown,
Still loving me
Thy little one.
To Judgment when the Trump is blown,
Still loving me
Thy little one.
AN EASTER CAROL.
Spring bursts today,
For Christ is risen and all the earth's at play.
For Christ is risen and all the earth's at play.
Flash forth, thou Sun,
The rain is over and gone, its work is done.
The rain is over and gone, its work is done.
Winter is past,
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.
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Bud, Fig and Vine,
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine.
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine.
Break forth this morn
In roses, thou but yesterday a Thorn.
In roses, thou but yesterday a Thorn.
Uplift thy head,
O pure white Lily thro' the Winter dead.
O pure white Lily thro' the Winter dead.
Beside your dams
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs.
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs.
All Herds and Flocks
Rejoice, all Beasts of thickets and of rocks.
Rejoice, all Beasts of thickets and of rocks.
Sing, Creatures, sing,
Angels and Men and Birds and everything,
Angels and Men and Birds and everything,
All notes of Doves
Fill all our world: this is the time of loves.
Fill all our world: this is the time of loves.
“BEHOLD A SHAKING.”
1
Man rising to the doom that shall not err,—Which hath most dread: the arouse of all or each;
All kindreds of all nations of all speech,
Or one by one of him and him and her?
While dust reanimate begins to stir
Here, there, beyond, beyond, reach beyond reach;
While every wave refashions on the beach
Alive or dead-in-life some seafarer.
Now meeting doth not join or parting part;
True meeting and true parting wait till then,
When whoso meet are joined for evermore,
Face answering face and heart at rest in heart:—
God bring us all rejoicing to the shore
Of happy Heaven, His sheep home to the pen.
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2
Blessed that flock safe penned in Paradise;Blessed this flock which tramps in weary ways;
All form one flock, God's flock; all yield Him praise
By joy or pain, still tending toward the prize.
Joy speaks in praises there, and sings and flies
Where no night is, exulting all its days;
Here, pain finds solace, for, behold, it prays;
In both love lives the life that never dies.
Here life is the beginning of our death,
And death the starting-point whence life ensues;
Surely our life is death, our death is life:
Nor need we lay to heart our peace or strife,
But calm in faith and patience breathe the breath
God gave, to take again when He shall choose.
ALL SAINTS.
They are flocking from the East
And the West,
They are flocking from the North
And the South,
Every moment setting forth
From realm of snake or lion,
Swamp or sand,
Ice or burning;
Greatest and least,
Palm in hand
And praise in mouth,
They are flocking up the path
To their rest,
Up the path that hath
No returning.
And the West,
They are flocking from the North
And the South,
Every moment setting forth
From realm of snake or lion,
Swamp or sand,
Ice or burning;
Greatest and least,
Palm in hand
And praise in mouth,
They are flocking up the path
To their rest,
Up the path that hath
No returning.
Up the steeps of Zion
They are mounting,
Coming, coming,
Throngs beyond man's counting;
With a sound
Like innumerable bees
Swarming, humming
Where flowering trees
Many tinted,
Many scented,
All alike abound
With honey,—
With a swell
Like a blast upswaying unrestrainable
From a shadowed dell
To the hill-tops sunny,—
With a thunder
Like the ocean when in strength
Breadth and length
It sets to shore;
More and more
Waves on waves redoubled pour
Leaping flashing to the shore
(Unlike the under
Drain of ebb that loseth ground
For all its roar).
They are mounting,
Coming, coming,
Throngs beyond man's counting;
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Like innumerable bees
Swarming, humming
Where flowering trees
Many tinted,
Many scented,
All alike abound
With honey,—
With a swell
Like a blast upswaying unrestrainable
From a shadowed dell
To the hill-tops sunny,—
With a thunder
Like the ocean when in strength
Breadth and length
It sets to shore;
More and more
Waves on waves redoubled pour
Leaping flashing to the shore
(Unlike the under
Drain of ebb that loseth ground
For all its roar).
They are thronging
From the East and West,
From the North and South,
Saints are thronging, loving, longing,
To their land
Of rest,
Palm in hand
And praise in mouth.
From the East and West,
From the North and South,
Saints are thronging, loving, longing,
To their land
Of rest,
Palm in hand
And praise in mouth.
“TAKE CARE OF HIM.”
“Thou whom I love, for whom I died,
Lovest thou Me, My bride?”—
Low on my knees I love Thee, Lord,
Believed in and adored.
Lovest thou Me, My bride?”—
Low on my knees I love Thee, Lord,
Believed in and adored.
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“That I love thee the proof is plain:
How dost thou love again?”—
In prayer, in toil, in earthly loss,
In a long-carried cross.
How dost thou love again?”—
In prayer, in toil, in earthly loss,
In a long-carried cross.
“Yea, thou dost love: yet one adept
Brings more for Me to accept.”—
I mould my will to match with Thine,
My wishes I resign.
Brings more for Me to accept.”—
I mould my will to match with Thine,
My wishes I resign.
“Thou givest much: then give the whole
For solace of My soul.”—
More would I give, if I could get:
But, Lord, what lack I yet?
For solace of My soul.”—
More would I give, if I could get:
But, Lord, what lack I yet?
“In Me thou lovest Me: I call
Thee to love Me in all.”—
Brim full my heart, dear Lord, that so
My love may overflow.
Thee to love Me in all.”—
Brim full my heart, dear Lord, that so
My love may overflow.
“Love Me in sinners and in saints,
In each who needs or faints.”—
Lord, I will love Thee as I can
In every brother man.
In each who needs or faints.”—
Lord, I will love Thee as I can
In every brother man.
“All sore, all crippled, all who ache,
Tend all for My dear sake.”—
All for Thy sake, Lord: I will see
In every sufferer Thee.
Tend all for My dear sake.”—
All for Thy sake, Lord: I will see
In every sufferer Thee.
“So I at last, upon My Throne
Of glory, Judge alone,
So I at last will say to thee:
Thou diddest it to Me.”
Of glory, Judge alone,
So I at last will say to thee:
Thou diddest it to Me.”
A MARTYR.
The Vigil Of The Feast.
Inner not outer, without gnash of teethOr weeping, save quiet sobs of some who pray
And feel the Everlasting Arms beneath,—
160
Darkness that even in gathering fleeteth fast,
Blackness of blackest darkness close to day.
Lord Jesus, thro' Thy darkened pillar cast,
Thy gracious eyes all-seeing cast on me
Until this tyranny be overpast.
Me, Lord, remember who remember Thee,
And cleave to Thee, and see Thee without sight,
And choose Thee still in dire extremity,
And in this darkness worship Thee my Light,
And Thee my Life adore in shadow of death,
Thee loved by day, and still beloved by night.
It is the Voice of my Beloved that saith:
“I am the Way, the Truth, the Life, I go
Whither that soul knows well that followeth”—
O Lord, I follow, little as I know;
At this eleventh hour I rise and take
My life into my hand, and follow so,
With tears and heart-misgivings and heart-ache;
Thy feeblest follower, yet Thy follower
Indomitable for Thine only sake.
Tonight I gird my will afresh, and stir
My strength, and brace my heart to do and dare,
Marvelling: Will tomorrow wake the whirr
Of the great rending wheel, or from his lair
Startle the jubilant lion in his rage,
Or clench the headsman's hand within my hair,
Or kindle fire to speed my pilgrimage,
Chariot of fire and horses of sheer fire
Whirling me home to heaven by one fierce stage?—
Thy Will I will, I Thy desire desire;
Let not the waters close above my head,
Uphold me that I sink not in this mire:
For flesh and blood are frail and sore afraid;
And young I am, unsatisfied and young,
With memories, hopes, with cravings all unfed,
My song half sung, its sweetest notes unsung,
All plans cut short, all possibilities,
Because my cord of life is soon unstrung.
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That this so bitter cup is brimmed for me?
Had mine own vintage settled on the lees?
A word, a puff of smoke, would set me free;
A word, a puff of smoke, over and gone: . . .
Howbeit, whom have I, Lord, in heaven but Thee?
Yea, only Thee my choice is fixed upon
In heaven or earth, eternity or time:—
Lord, hold me fast, Lord, leave me not alone,
Thy silly heartless dove that sees the lime
Yet almost flutters to the tempting bough:
Cover me, hide me, pluck me from this crime.
A word, a puff of smoke, would save me now: . . .
But who, my God, would save me in the day
Of Thy fierce anger? only Saviour Thou.
Preoccupy my heart, and turn away
And cover up mine eyes from frantic fear,
And stop mine ears lest I be driven astray:
For one stands ever dinning in mine ear
How my gray Father withers in the blight
Of love for me, who cruel am and dear;
And how my Mother thro' this lingering night
Until the day, sits tearless in her woe,
Loathing for love of me the happy light
Which brings to pass a concourse and a show
To glut the hungry faces merciless,
The thousand faces swaying to and fro,
Feasting on me unveiled in helplessness
Alone,—yet not alone: Lord, stand by me
As once by lonely Paul in his distress.
As blossoms to the sun I turn to Thee;
Thy dove turns to her window, think no scorn;
As one dove to an ark on shoreless sea,
To Thee I turn mine eyes, my heart forlorn;
Put forth Thy scarred right Hand, kind Lord, take hold
Of me Thine all-forsaken dove who mourn:
For Thou hast loved me since the days of old,
And I love Thee Whom loving I will love
Thro' life's short fever-fits of heat and cold;
162
Will flee for refuge to Thy Blessed Name.
Lord, look upon me from Thy bliss above:
Look down on me, who shrink from all the shame
And pangs and desolation of my death,
Wrenched piecemeal or devoured or set on flame,
While all the world around me holds its breath
With eyes glued on me for a gazing-stock,
Pitiless eyes, while no man pitieth.
The floods are risen, I stagger in their shock,
My heart reels and is faint, I fail, I faint:
My God, set Thou me up upon the rock,
Thou Who didst long ago Thyself acquaint
With death, our death; Thou Who didst long ago
Pour forth Thy soul for sinner and for saint.
Bear me in mind, whom no one else will know;
Thou Whom Thy friends forsook, take Thou my part,
Of all forsaken in mine overthrow;
Carry me in Thy bosom, in Thy heart,
Carry me out of darkness into light,
Tomorrow make me see Thee as Thou art.
Lover and friend Thou hidest from my sight:—
Alas, alas, mine earthly love, alas,
For whom I thought to don the garments white
And white wreath of a bride, this rugged pass
Hath utterly divorced me from thy care;
Yea, I am to thee as a shattered glass
Worthless, with no more beauty lodging there,
Abhorred, lest I involve thee in my doom:
For sweet are sunshine and this upper air,
And life and youth are sweet, and give us room
For all most sweetest sweetnesses we taste:
Dear, what hast thou in common with a tomb?
I bow my head in silence, I make haste
Alone, I make haste out into the dark,
My life and youth and hope all run to waste.
Is this my body cold and stiff and stark,
Ashes made ashes, earth becoming earth,
Is this a prize for man to make his mark?
163
A while ago, a little little while,
Yet all the while a-dying since my birth?
Now am I tired, too tired to strive or smile;
I sit alone, my mouth is in the dust:
Look Thou upon me, Lord, for I am vile.
In Thee is all my hope, is all my trust,
On Thee I centre all my self that dies,
And self that dies not with its mortal crust,
But sleeps and wakes, and in the end will rise
With hymns and hallelujahs on its lips,
Thee loving with the love that satisfies.
As once in Thine unutterable eclipse
The sun and moon grew dark for sympathy,
And earth cowered quaking underneath the drips
Of Thy slow Blood priceless exceedingly,
So now a little spare me, and show forth
Some pity, O my God, some pity of me.
If trouble comes not from the south or north,
But meted to us by Thy tender hand,
Let me not in Thine eyes be nothing worth:
Behold me where in agony I stand,
Behold me no man caring for my soul,
And take me to Thee in the far-off land,
Shorten the race and lift me to the goal.
WHY?
Lord, if I love Thee and Thou lovest me,Why need I any more these toilsome days;
Why should I not run singing up Thy ways
Straight into heaven, to rest myself with Thee?
What need remains of death-pang yet to be,
If all my soul is quickened in Thy praise;
If all my heart loves Thee, what need the amaze,
Struggle and dimness of an agony?—
Bride whom I love, if thou too lovest Me,
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So wilt thou toil in patience, and abide
Hungering and thirsting for that blessed hour
When I My Likeness shall behold in thee,
And thou therein shalt waken satisfied.
“LOVE IS STRONG AS DEATH.”
“I have not sought Thee, I have not found Thee,
I have not thirsted for Thee:
And now cold billows of death surround me,
Buffeting billows of death astound me,—
Wilt Thou look upon, wilt Thou see
Thy perishing me?”
I have not thirsted for Thee:
And now cold billows of death surround me,
Buffeting billows of death astound me,—
Wilt Thou look upon, wilt Thou see
Thy perishing me?”
“Yea, I have sought thee, yea, I have found thee,
Yea, I have thirsted for thee,
Yea, long ago with love's bands I bound thee:
Now the Everlasting Arms surround thee,—
Thro' death's darkness I look and see
And clasp thee to Me.”
Yea, I have thirsted for thee,
Yea, long ago with love's bands I bound thee:
Now the Everlasting Arms surround thee,—
Thro' death's darkness I look and see
And clasp thee to Me.”
165
IV
Poems Added in Poems (1888)
167
BIRCHINGTON CHURCHYARD.
A lowly hill which overlooks a flat,
Half sea, half country side;
A flat-shored sea of low-voiced creeping tide
Over a chalky weedy mat.
Half sea, half country side;
A flat-shored sea of low-voiced creeping tide
Over a chalky weedy mat.
A hill of hillocks, flowery and kept green
Round Crosses raised for hope,
With many-tinted sunsets where the slope
Faces the lingering western sheen.
Round Crosses raised for hope,
With many-tinted sunsets where the slope
Faces the lingering western sheen.
A lowly hope, a height that is but low,
While Time sets solemnly,
While the tide rises of Eternity,
Silent and neither swift nor slow.
While Time sets solemnly,
While the tide rises of Eternity,
Silent and neither swift nor slow.
ONE SEA-SIDE GRAVE.
Unmindful of the roses,
Unmindful of the thorn,
A reaper tired reposes
Among his gathered corn:
So might I, till the morn!
Unmindful of the thorn,
A reaper tired reposes
Among his gathered corn:
So might I, till the morn!
Cold as the cold Decembers,
Past as the days that set,
While only one remembers
And all the rest forget,—
But one remembers yet.
Past as the days that set,
While only one remembers
And all the rest forget,—
But one remembers yet.
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BROTHER BRUIN.
A dancing Bear grotesque and funny
Earned for his master heaps of money,
Gruff yet good-natured, fond of honey,
And cheerful if the day was sunny.
Past hedge and ditch, past pond and wood
He tramped, and on some common stood;
There cottage children circling gaily,
He in their midmost footed daily.
Pandean pipes and drum and muzzle
Were quite enough his brain to puzzle:
But like a philosophic bear
He let alone extraneous care
And danced contented anywhere.
Earned for his master heaps of money,
Gruff yet good-natured, fond of honey,
And cheerful if the day was sunny.
Past hedge and ditch, past pond and wood
He tramped, and on some common stood;
There cottage children circling gaily,
He in their midmost footed daily.
Pandean pipes and drum and muzzle
Were quite enough his brain to puzzle:
But like a philosophic bear
He let alone extraneous care
And danced contented anywhere.
Still, year on year, and wear and tear,
Age even the gruffest bluffest bear.
A day came when he scarce could prance,
And when his master looked askance
On dancing Bear who would not dance.
To looks succeeded blows; hard blows
Battered his ears and poor old nose.
From bluff and gruff he waxed curmudgeon;
He danced indeed, but danced in dudgeon,
Capered in fury fast and faster:—
Ah, could he once but hug his master
And perish in one joint disaster!
But deafness, blindness, weakness growing,
Not fury's self could keep him going.
One dark day when the snow was snowing
His cup was brimmed to overflowing:
He tottered, toppled on one side,
Growled once, and shook his head, and died.
The master kicked and struck in vain,
The weary drudge had distanced pain
And never now would wince again.
The master growled: he might have howled
Or coaxed—that slave's last growl was growled.
So gnawed by rancour and chagrin
One thing remained: he sold the skin.
Age even the gruffest bluffest bear.
A day came when he scarce could prance,
And when his master looked askance
On dancing Bear who would not dance.
To looks succeeded blows; hard blows
Battered his ears and poor old nose.
From bluff and gruff he waxed curmudgeon;
He danced indeed, but danced in dudgeon,
Capered in fury fast and faster:—
Ah, could he once but hug his master
And perish in one joint disaster!
But deafness, blindness, weakness growing,
Not fury's self could keep him going.
One dark day when the snow was snowing
His cup was brimmed to overflowing:
He tottered, toppled on one side,
Growled once, and shook his head, and died.
The master kicked and struck in vain,
The weary drudge had distanced pain
And never now would wince again.
The master growled: he might have howled
Or coaxed—that slave's last growl was growled.
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One thing remained: he sold the skin.
What next the man did is not worth
Your notice or my setting forth,
But hearken what befell at last.
His idle working days gone past,
And not one friend and not one penny
Stored up (if ever he had any
Friends: but his coppers had been many),
All doors stood shut against him, but
The workhouse door which cannot shut.
There he droned on—a grim old sinner
Toothless and grumbling for his dinner,
Unpitied quite, uncared for much
(The ratepayers not favouring such),
Hungry and gaunt, with time to spare:
Perhaps the hungry gaunt old Bear
Danced back, a haunting memory.
Indeed I hope so: for you see
If once the hard old heart relented
The hard old man may have repented.
Your notice or my setting forth,
But hearken what befell at last.
His idle working days gone past,
And not one friend and not one penny
Stored up (if ever he had any
Friends: but his coppers had been many),
All doors stood shut against him, but
The workhouse door which cannot shut.
There he droned on—a grim old sinner
Toothless and grumbling for his dinner,
Unpitied quite, uncared for much
(The ratepayers not favouring such),
Hungry and gaunt, with time to spare:
Perhaps the hungry gaunt old Bear
Danced back, a haunting memory.
Indeed I hope so: for you see
If once the hard old heart relented
The hard old man may have repented.
“A HELPMEET FOR HIM.”
Woman was made for man's delight;
Charm, O woman, be not afraid!
His shadow by day, his moon by night,
Woman was made.
Charm, O woman, be not afraid!
His shadow by day, his moon by night,
Woman was made.
Her strength with weakness is overlaid;
Meek compliances veil her might;
Him she stays, by whom she is stayed.
Meek compliances veil her might;
Him she stays, by whom she is stayed.
World-wide champion of truth and right,
Hope in gloom and in danger aid,
Tender and faithful, ruddy and white,
Woman was made.
Hope in gloom and in danger aid,
Tender and faithful, ruddy and white,
Woman was made.
170
A SONG OF FLIGHT.
While we slumber and sleep
The sun leaps up from the deep
—Daylight born at the leap!—
Rapid, dominant, free,
Athirst to bathe in the uttermost sea.
The sun leaps up from the deep
—Daylight born at the leap!—
Rapid, dominant, free,
Athirst to bathe in the uttermost sea.
While we linger at play
—If the year would stand at May!—
Winds are up and away
Over land, over sea,
To their goal wherever their goal may be.
—If the year would stand at May!—
Winds are up and away
Over land, over sea,
To their goal wherever their goal may be.
It is time to arise,
To race for the promised prize,
—The Sun flies, the Wind flies—
We are strong, we are free,
And home lies beyond the stars and the sea.
To race for the promised prize,
—The Sun flies, the Wind flies—
We are strong, we are free,
And home lies beyond the stars and the sea.
A WINTRY SONNET.
A Robin said: The Spring will never come,And I shall never care to build again.
A Rosebush said: These frosts are wearisome,
My sap will never stir for sun or rain.
The half Moon said: These nights are fogged and slow,
I neither care to wax nor care to wane.
The Ocean said: I thirst from long ago,
Because earth's rivers cannot fill the main.—
When Springtime came, red Robin built a nest,
And trilled a lover's song in sheer delight.
Gray hoarfrost vanished, and the Rose with might
Clothed her in leaves and buds of crimson core.
The dim Moon brightened. Ocean sunned his crest,
Dimpled his blue, yet thirsted evermore.
171
RESURGAM.
From depth to height, from height to loftier height,The climber sets his foot and sets his face,
Tracks lingering sunbeams to their halting-place,
And counts the last pulsations of the light.
Strenuous thro' day and unsurprised by night
He runs a race with Time and wins the race,
Emptied and stripped of all save only Grace,
Will, Love, a threefold panoply of might.
Darkness descends for light he toiled to seek:
He stumbles on the darkened mountain-head,
Left breathless in the unbreathable thin air,
Made freeman of the living and the dead:—
He wots not he has topped the topmost peak,
But the returning sun will find him there.
TODAY'S BURDEN.
“Arise, depart, for this is not your rest.”—Oh burden of all burdens, still to arise
And still depart, nor rest in any wise!
Rolling, still rolling thus to east from west
Earth journeys on her immemorial quest,
Whom a moon chases in no different guise:
Thus stars pursue their courses, and thus flies
The sun, and thus all creatures manifest.
Unrest the common heritage, the ban
Flung broadcast on all humankind, on all
Who live; for living, all are bound to die:
That which is old, we know that it is man:
These have no rest who sit and dream and sigh,
Nor have those rest who wrestle and who fall.
172
“THERE IS A BUDDING MORROW IN MIDNIGHT.”
Wintry boughs against a wintry sky;
Yet the sky is partly blue
And the clouds are partly bright:—
Who can tell but sap is mounting high
Out of sight,
Ready to burst through?
Yet the sky is partly blue
And the clouds are partly bright:—
Who can tell but sap is mounting high
Out of sight,
Ready to burst through?
Winter is the mother-nurse of Spring,
Lovely for her daughter's sake,
Not unlovely for her own:
For a future buds in everything;
Grown, or blown,
Or about to break.
Lovely for her daughter's sake,
Not unlovely for her own:
For a future buds in everything;
Grown, or blown,
Or about to break.
EXULTATE DEO.
Many a flower hath perfume for its dower,
And many a bird a song,
And harmless lambs milkwhite beside their dams
Frolic along;
Perfume and song and whiteness offering praise
In humble, peaceful ways.
And many a bird a song,
And harmless lambs milkwhite beside their dams
Frolic along;
Perfume and song and whiteness offering praise
In humble, peaceful ways.
Man's high degree hath will and memory,
Affection and desire,
By loftier ways he mounts of prayer and praise;
Fire unto fire,
Deep unto deep responsive, height to height,
Until he walk in white.
Affection and desire,
By loftier ways he mounts of prayer and praise;
Fire unto fire,
Deep unto deep responsive, height to height,
Until he walk in white.
A HOPE CAROL.
A night was near, a day was near,
Between a day and night
I heard sweet voices calling clear,
Calling me:
I heard a whirr of wing on wing,
But could not see the sight;
I long to see my birds that sing,
I long to see.
Between a day and night
I heard sweet voices calling clear,
Calling me:
173
But could not see the sight;
I long to see my birds that sing,
I long to see.
Below the stars, beyond the moon,
Between the night and day
I heard a rising falling tune
Calling me:
I long to see the pipes and strings
Whereon such minstrels play;
I long to see each face that sings,
I long to see.
Between the night and day
I heard a rising falling tune
Calling me:
I long to see the pipes and strings
Whereon such minstrels play;
I long to see each face that sings,
I long to see.
Today or may be not today,
Tonight or not tonight,
All voices that command or pray
Calling me,
Shall kindle in my soul such fire
And in my eyes such light
That I shall see that heart's desire
I long to see.
Tonight or not tonight,
All voices that command or pray
Calling me,
Shall kindle in my soul such fire
And in my eyes such light
That I shall see that heart's desire
I long to see.
CHRISTMAS CAROLS.
1.
Whoso hears a chiming for Christmas at the nighest,
Hears a sound like Angels chanting in their glee,
Hears a sound like palm boughs waving in the highest,
Hears a sound like ripple of a crystal sea.
Hears a sound like Angels chanting in their glee,
Hears a sound like palm boughs waving in the highest,
Hears a sound like ripple of a crystal sea.
Sweeter than a prayer-bell for a saint in dying,
Sweeter than a death-bell for a saint at rest,
Music struck in Heaven with earth's faint replying
“Life is good, and death is good, for Christ is Best.”
Sweeter than a death-bell for a saint at rest,
Music struck in Heaven with earth's faint replying
“Life is good, and death is good, for Christ is Best.”
174
2.
A holy, heavenly chime
Rings fulness in of time,
And on His Mother's breast
Our Lord God ever-Blest
Is laid a Babe at rest.
Rings fulness in of time,
And on His Mother's breast
Our Lord God ever-Blest
Is laid a Babe at rest.
Stoop, Spirits unused to stoop,
Swoop, Angels, flying swoop,
Adoring as you gaze,
Uplifting hymns of praise:—
“Grace to the Full of Grace!”
Swoop, Angels, flying swoop,
Adoring as you gaze,
Uplifting hymns of praise:—
“Grace to the Full of Grace!”
The cave is cold and strait
To hold the angelic state:
More strait it is, more cold,
To foster and infold
Its Maker one hour old.
To hold the angelic state:
More strait it is, more cold,
To foster and infold
Its Maker one hour old.
Thrilled thro' with awestruck love,
Meek Angels poised above,
To see their God, look down:
“What, is there never a Crown
For Him in swaddled gown?
Meek Angels poised above,
To see their God, look down:
“What, is there never a Crown
For Him in swaddled gown?
“How comes He soft and weak
With such a tender cheek,
With such a soft small hand?—
The very Hand which spann'd
Heaven when its girth was plann'd.
With such a tender cheek,
With such a soft small hand?—
The very Hand which spann'd
Heaven when its girth was plann'd.
“How comes He with a voice
Which is but baby-noise?—
That Voice which spake with might
—‘Let there be light’—and light
Sprang out before our sight.
Which is but baby-noise?—
That Voice which spake with might
—‘Let there be light’—and light
Sprang out before our sight.
“What need hath He of flesh
Made flawless now afresh?
What need of human heart?—
Heart that must bleed and smart
Choosing the better part.
Made flawless now afresh?
What need of human heart?—
Heart that must bleed and smart
Choosing the better part.
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“But see: His gracious smile
Dismisses us a while
To serve Him in His kin.
Haste we, make haste, begin
To fetch His brethren in.”
Dismisses us a while
To serve Him in His kin.
Haste we, make haste, begin
To fetch His brethren in.”
Like stars they flash and shoot,
The Shepherds they salute:
“Glory to God” they sing:
“Good news of peace we bring,
For Christ is born a King.”
The Shepherds they salute:
“Glory to God” they sing:
“Good news of peace we bring,
For Christ is born a King.”
3.
Lo! newborn Jesus
Soft and weak and small,
Wrapped in baby's bands
By His Mother's hands,
Lord God of all.
Soft and weak and small,
Wrapped in baby's bands
By His Mother's hands,
Lord God of all.
Lord God of Mary,
Whom His Lips caress
While He rocks to rest
On her milky breast
In helplessness.
Whom His Lips caress
While He rocks to rest
On her milky breast
In helplessness.
Lord God of shepherds
Flocking through the cold,
Flocking through the dark
To the only Ark,
The only Fold.
Flocking through the cold,
Flocking through the dark
To the only Ark,
The only Fold.
Lord God of all things
Be they near or far,
Be they high or low;
Lord of storm and snow,
Angel and star.
Be they near or far,
Be they high or low;
Lord of storm and snow,
Angel and star.
Lord God of all men,—
My Lord and my God!
Thou who lovest me,
Keep me close to Thee
By staff and rod.
My Lord and my God!
Thou who lovest me,
Keep me close to Thee
By staff and rod.
176
Lo! newborn Jesus
Loving great and small,
Love's free Sacrifice,
Opening Arms and Eyes
To one and all.
Loving great and small,
Love's free Sacrifice,
Opening Arms and Eyes
To one and all.
A CANDLEMAS DIALOGUE.
“Love brought Me down: and cannot love make thee
Carol for joy to Me?
Hear cheerful robin carol from his tree,
Who owes not half to Me
I won for thee.”
Carol for joy to Me?
Hear cheerful robin carol from his tree,
Who owes not half to Me
I won for thee.”
“Yea, Lord, I hear his carol's wordless voice;
And well may he rejoice
Who hath not heard of death's discordant noise.
So might I too rejoice
With such a voice.”
And well may he rejoice
Who hath not heard of death's discordant noise.
So might I too rejoice
With such a voice.”
“True, thou hast compassed death: but hast not thou
The tree of life's own bough?
Am I not Life and Resurrection now?
My Cross balm-bearing bough
For such as thou.”
The tree of life's own bough?
Am I not Life and Resurrection now?
My Cross balm-bearing bough
For such as thou.”
“Ah me, Thy Cross!—but that seems far away;
Thy Cradle-song today
I too would raise and worship Thee and pray:
Not empty, Lord, today
Send me away.”
Thy Cradle-song today
I too would raise and worship Thee and pray:
Not empty, Lord, today
Send me away.”
“If thou wilt not go empty, spend thy store;
And I will give thee more,
Yea, make thee ten times richer than before.
Give more and give yet more
Out of thy store.”
And I will give thee more,
Yea, make thee ten times richer than before.
Give more and give yet more
Out of thy store.”
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“Because Thou givest me Thyself, I will
Thy blessed word fulfil,
Give with both hands, and hoard by giving still:
Thy pleasure to fulfil,
And work Thy Will.”
Thy blessed word fulfil,
Give with both hands, and hoard by giving still:
Thy pleasure to fulfil,
And work Thy Will.”
MARY MAGDALENE AND THE OTHER MARY. A SONG FOR ALL MARIES.
Our Master lies asleep and is at rest:
His Heart has ceased to bleed, His Eye to weep:
The sun ashamed has dropt down in the west:
Our Master lies asleep.
His Heart has ceased to bleed, His Eye to weep:
The sun ashamed has dropt down in the west:
Our Master lies asleep.
Now we are they who weep, and trembling keep
Vigil, with wrung heart in a sighing breast,
While slow time creeps, and slow the shadows creep.
Vigil, with wrung heart in a sighing breast,
While slow time creeps, and slow the shadows creep.
Renew Thy youth, as eagle from the nest;
O Master, who hast sown, arise to reap:—
No cock-crow yet, no flush on eastern crest:
Our Master lies asleep.
O Master, who hast sown, arise to reap:—
No cock-crow yet, no flush on eastern crest:
Our Master lies asleep.
PATIENCE OF HOPE.
The flowers that bloom in sun and shade
And glitter in the dew,
The flowers must fade.
The birds that build their nest and sing
When lovely Spring is new,
Must soon take wing.
And glitter in the dew,
The flowers must fade.
The birds that build their nest and sing
When lovely Spring is new,
Must soon take wing.
The sun that rises in his strength
To wake and warm the world,
Must set at length.
To wake and warm the world,
Must set at length.
The sea that overflows the shore
With billows frothed and curled,
Must ebb once more.
With billows frothed and curled,
Must ebb once more.
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All come and go, all wax and wane,
O Lord, save only Thou
Who dost remain
The Same to all eternity.
All things which fail us now
We trust to Thee.
O Lord, save only Thou
Who dost remain
The Same to all eternity.
All things which fail us now
We trust to Thee.
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V
Verses (1893)
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“OUT OF THE DEEP HAVE I CALLED UNTO THEE, O LORD.”
[Alone Lord God, in Whom our trust and peace]
Alone Lord God, in Whom our trust and peace,Our love and our desire, glow bright with hope;
Lift us above this transitory scope
Of earth, these pleasures that begin and cease,
This moon which wanes, these seasons which decrease:
We turn to Thee; as on an eastern slope
Wheat feels the dawn beneath night's lingering cope,
Bending and stretching sunward ere it sees.
Alone Lord God, we see not yet we know;
By love we dwell with patience and desire,
And loving so and so desiring pray;
Thy will be done in earth as heaven today;
As yesterday it was, tomorrow so;
Love offering love on love's self-feeding fire.
[Seven vials hold Thy wrath: but what can hold]
Seven vials hold Thy wrath: but what can holdThy mercy save Thine own Infinitude
Boundlessly overflowing with all good,
All lovingkindness, all delights untold?
Thy Love, of each created love the mould;
Thyself, of all the empty plenitude;
Heard of at Ephrata, found in the Wood,
For ever One, the Same, and Manifold.
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Which Ark-bound winged its solitary way
And overpast the Deluge in a day,
Whom Noah's hand pulled in and comforted:
For we who much more hang upon Thy Love
Behold its shadow in the deed he did.
“Where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt.”
Nerve us with patience, Lord, to toil or rest,Toiling at rest on our allotted level;
Unsnared, unscared by world or flesh or devil,
Fulfilling the good Will of Thy behest;
Not careful here to hoard, not here to revel;
But waiting for our treasure and our zest
Beyond the fading splendour of the west,
Beyond this deathstruck life and deathlier evil.
Not with the sparrow building here a house:
But with the swallow tabernacling so
As still to poise alert to rise and go
On eager wings with wing-outspeeding wills
Beyond earth's gourds and past her almond boughs,
Past utmost bound of the everlasting hills.
“As the sparks fly upwards.”
Lord, grant us wills to trust Thee with such aimOf hope and passionate craving of desire,
That we may mount aspiring, and aspire
Still while we mount; rejoicing in Thy Name
Yesterday, this day, day by day the Same:
So sparks fly upward scaling heaven by fire,
Still mount and still attain not, yet draw nigher
While they have being to their fountain flame.
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Is as mere nothing, they have set their face
Onward and upward toward that blessèd place
Where man rejoices with his God, and soul
With soul, in the unutterable kiss
Of peace for every victor at the goal.
[Lord, make us all love all: that when we meet]
Lord, make us all love all: that when we meetEven myriads of earth's myriads at Thy Bar,
We may be glad as all true lovers are
Who having parted count reunion sweet.
Safe gathered home around Thy blessèd Feet,
Come home by different roads from near or far,
Whether by whirlwind or by flaming car,
From pangs or sleep, safe folded round Thy seat.
Oh, if our brother's blood cry out at us,
How shall we meet Thee Who hast loved us all,
Thee Whom we never loved, not loving him?
The unloving cannot chant with Seraphim,
Bear harp of gold or palm victorious,
Or face the Vision Beatifical.
[O lord, I am ashamed to seek Thy Face]
O lord, I am ashamed to seek Thy FaceAs tho' I loved Thee as Thy saints love Thee:
Yet turn from those Thy lovers, look on me,
Disgrace me not with uttermost disgrace;
But pour on me ungracious, pour Thy grace
To purge my heart and bid my will go free,
Till I too taste Thy hidden Sweetness, see
Thy hidden Beauty in the holy place.
O Thou Who callest sinners to repent,
Call me Thy sinner unto penitence,
For many sins grant me the greater love:
Set me above the waterfloods, above
Devil and shifting world and fleshly sense,
Thy Mercy's all-amazing monument.
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[It is not death, O Christ, to die for Thee]
It is not death, O Christ, to die for Thee:Nor is that silence of a silent land
Which speaks Thy praise so all may understand:
Darkness of death makes Thy dear lovers see
Thyself Who Wast and Art and Art to Be;
Thyself, more lovely than the lovely band
Of saints who worship Thee on either hand,
Loving and loved thro' all eternity.
Death is not death, and therefore do I hope:
Nor silence silence; and I therefore sing
A very humble hopeful quiet psalm,
Searching my heart-field for an offering;
A handful of sun-courting heliotrope,
Of myrrh a bundle, and a little balm.
[Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear]
Lord, grant us eyes to see and ears to hear,And souls to love and minds to understand,
And steadfast faces toward the Holy Land,
And confidence of hope, and filial fear,
And citizenship where Thy saints appear
Before Thee heart in heart and hand in hand,
And Alleluias where their chanting band
As waters and as thunders fill the sphere.
Lord, grant us what Thou wilt, and what Thou wilt
Deny, and fold us in Thy peaceful fold:
Not as the world gives, give to us Thine own:
Inbuild us where Jerusalem is built
With walls of jasper and with streets of gold,
And Thou Thyself, Lord Christ, for Corner Stone.
“Cried out with Tears.”
Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief:Lord, I repent, help mine impenitence:
Hide not Thy Face from me, nor spurn me hence,
Nor utterly despise me in my grief;
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Bemoaning my so long lost innocence:—
Ah me! my penitence a fresh offence,
Too tardy and too tepid and too brief.
Lord, must I perish, I who look to Thee?
Look Thou upon me, bid me live, not die;
Say “Come,” say not “Depart,” tho' Thou art just:
Yea, Lord, be mindful how out of the dust
I look to Thee while Thou dost look on me,
Thou Face to face with me and Eye to eye.
[O Lord, on Whom we gaze and dare not gaze]
O Lord, on Whom we gaze and dare not gaze,Increase our faith that gazing we may see,
And seeing love, and loving worship Thee
Thro' all our days, our long and lengthening days.
O Lord, accessible to prayer and praise,
Kind Lord, Companion of the two or three,
Good Lord, be gracious to all men and me,
Lighten our darkness and amend our ways.
Call up our hearts to Thee, that where Thou art
Our treasure and our heart may dwell at one:
Then let the pallid moon pursue her sun,
So long as it shall please Thee, far apart,—
Yet art Thou with us, Thou to Whom we run,
We hand in hand with Thee and heart in heart.
“I will come and heal him.”
O Lord God, hear the silence of each soul,Its cry unutterable of ruth and shame,
Its voicelessness of self-contempt and blame:
Nor suffer harp and palm and aureole
Of multitudes who praise Thee at the goal,
To set aside Thy poor and blind and lame;
Nor blazing Seraphs utterly to outflame
The spark that flies up from each earthly coal.
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Price of Thy priceless Blood am precious so
That good things love me in their love of Thee:
I comprehend not why Thou lovedst me
With Thy so mighty Love; but this I know,
No man hath greater love than thus to die.
[Ah Lord, Lord, if my heart were right with Thine]
Ah Lord, Lord, if my heart were right with ThineAs Thine with mine, then should I rest resigned
Awaiting knowledge with a quiet mind
Because of heavenly wisdom's anodyne.
Then would Thy Love be more to me than wine,
Then should I seek being sure at length to find,
Then should I trust to Thee all humankind
Because Thy Love of them is more than mine.
Then should I stir up hope and comfort me
Remembering Thy Cradle and Thy Cross;
How Heaven to Thee without us had been loss,
How Heaven with us is Thy one only Heaven,
Heaven shared with us thro' all eternity,
With us long sought, long loved, and much forgiven.
“The gold of that land is good.”
I long for joy, O Lord, I long for gold,I long for all Thou profferest to me,
I long for the unimagined manifold
Abundance laid up in Thy treasury.
I long for pearls, but not from mundane sea;
I long for palms, but not from earthly mould;
Yet in all else I long for, long for Thee,
Thyself to hear and worship and behold.
For Thee, beyond the splendour of that day
Where all is day and is not any night;
For Thee, beyond refreshment of that rest
To which tired saints press on for its delight:—
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To make me long so till Thou make me blest.
[Weigh all my faults and follies righteously]
Weigh all my faults and follies righteously,Omissions and commissions, sin on sin;
Make deep the scale, O Lord, to weigh them in;
Yea, set the Accuser vulture-eyed to see
All loads ingathered which belong to me:
That so in life the judgement may begin,
And Angels learn how hard it is to win
One solitary sinful soul to Thee.
I have no merits for a counterpoise:
Oh vanity my work and hastening day,
What can I answer to the accusing voice?
Lord, drop Thou in the counterscale alone
One Drop from Thine own Heart, and overweigh
My guilt, my folly, even my heart of stone.
[Lord, grant me grace to love Thee in my pain]
Lord, grant me grace to love Thee in my pain,Thro' all my disappointment love Thee still,
Thy love my strong foundation and my hill,
Tho' I be such as cometh not again,
A fading leaf, a spark upon the wane:
So evermore do Thou Thy perfect Will
Beloved thro' all my good, thro' all mine ill,
Beloved tho' all my love beside be vain.
If thus I love Thee, how wilt Thou love me,
Thou Who art greater than my heart? (Amen!)
Wilt Thou bestow a part, withhold a part?
The longing of my heart cries out to Thee,
The hungering thirsting longing of my heart:
What I forewent wilt Thou not grant me then?
[Lord, make me one with Thine own faithful ones]
Lord, make me one with Thine own faithful ones,Thy Saints who love Thee and are loved by Thee;
Till the day break and till the shadows flee,
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At one with him who toils and him who runs,
And him who yearns for union yet to be;
At one with all who throng the crystal sea
And wait the setting of our moons and suns.
Ah, my beloved ones gone on before,
Who looked not back with hand upon the plough!
If beautiful to me while still in sight,
How beautiful must be your aspects now;
Your unknown, well-known aspects in that light
Which clouds shall never cloud for evermore.
“Light of Light.”
O Christ our Light, Whom even in darkness we(So we look up) discern and gaze upon,
O Christ, Thou loveliest Light that ever shone,
Thou Light of Light, Fount of all lights that be,
Grant us clear vision of Thy Light to see,
Tho' other lights elude us, or begone
Into the secret of oblivion,
Or gleam in places higher than man's degree.
Who looks on Thee looks full on his desire,
Who looks on Thee looks full on Very Love:
Looking, he answers well, “What lack I yet?”
His heat and cold wait not on earthly fire,
His wealth is not of earth to lose or get;
Earth reels, but he has stored his store above.
CHRIST OUR ALL IN ALL.
“The ransomed of the Lord.”
Thy lovely saints do bring Thee love,Incense and joy and gold;
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Beloved by Thee of old.
I, Master, neither star nor dove,
Have brought Thee sins and tears;
Yet I too bring a little love
Amid my flaws and fears.
A trembling love that faints and fails
Yet still is love of Thee,
A wondering Love that hopes and hails
Thy boundless Love of me;
Love kindling faith and pure desire,
Love following on to bliss,
A spark, O Jesu, from Thy fire,
A drop from Thine abyss.
[Lord, we are rivers running to Thy sea]
Lord, we are rivers running to Thy sea,
Our waves and ripples all derived from Thee:
A nothing we should have, a nothing be,
Except for Thee.
Our waves and ripples all derived from Thee:
A nothing we should have, a nothing be,
Except for Thee.
Sweet are the waters of Thy shoreless sea,
Make sweet our waters that make haste to Thee;
Pour in Thy sweetness, that ourselves may be
Sweetness to Thee.
Make sweet our waters that make haste to Thee;
Pour in Thy sweetness, that ourselves may be
Sweetness to Thee.
“An exceeding bitter cry.”
Contempt and pangs and haunting fears—
Too late for hope, too late for ease,
Too late for rising from the dead;
Too late, too late to bend my knees,
Or bow my head,
Or weep, or ask for tears.
Too late for hope, too late for ease,
Too late for rising from the dead;
Too late, too late to bend my knees,
Or bow my head,
Or weep, or ask for tears.
Hark! . . . One I hear Who calls to me:
“Give Me thy thorn and grief and scorn,
Give Me thy ruin and regret.
Press on thro' darkness toward the morn:
One loves thee yet:
Have I forgotten thee?”
“Give Me thy thorn and grief and scorn,
Give Me thy ruin and regret.
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One loves thee yet:
Have I forgotten thee?”
Lord, Who art Thou? Lord, is it Thou
My Lord and God Lord Jesus Christ?
How said I that I sat alone
And desolate and unsufficed?
Surely a stone
Would raise Thy praises now!
My Lord and God Lord Jesus Christ?
How said I that I sat alone
And desolate and unsufficed?
Surely a stone
Would raise Thy praises now!
[O Lord, when Thou didst call me, didst Thou know]
O Lord, when Thou didst call me, didst Thou know
My heart disheartened thro' and thro',
Still hankering after Egypt full in view
Where cucumbers and melons grow?
—“Yea, I knew.”—
My heart disheartened thro' and thro',
Still hankering after Egypt full in view
Where cucumbers and melons grow?
—“Yea, I knew.”—
But, Lord, when Thou didst choose me, didst Thou know
How marred I was and withered too,
Nor rose for sweetness nor for virtue rue,
Timid and rash, hasty and slow?
—“Yea, I knew.”—
How marred I was and withered too,
Nor rose for sweetness nor for virtue rue,
Timid and rash, hasty and slow?
—“Yea, I knew.”—
My Lord, when Thou didst love me, didst Thou know
How weak my efforts were, how few,
Tepid to love and impotent to do,
Envious to reap while slack to sow?
—“Yea, I knew.”—
How weak my efforts were, how few,
Tepid to love and impotent to do,
Envious to reap while slack to sow?
—“Yea, I knew.”—
Good Lord, Who knowest what I cannot know
And dare not know, my false, my true,
My new, my old; Good Lord, arise and do
If loving Thou hast known me so.
—“Yea, I knew.”—
And dare not know, my false, my true,
My new, my old; Good Lord, arise and do
If loving Thou hast known me so.
—“Yea, I knew.”—
“Thou, God, seest me.”
Ah me, that I should be
Exposed and open evermore to Thee!—
“Nay, shrink not from My light,
And I will make thee glorious in My sight
With the overcoming Shulamite.”—
Yea, Lord, Thou moulding me.
Exposed and open evermore to Thee!—
“Nay, shrink not from My light,
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With the overcoming Shulamite.”—
Yea, Lord, Thou moulding me.
. . . Without a hiding-place
To hide me from the terrors of Thy Face.—
“Thy hiding-place is here
In Mine own heart, wherefore the Roman spear
For thy sake I accounted dear.”—
My Jesus! King of Grace.
To hide me from the terrors of Thy Face.—
“Thy hiding-place is here
In Mine own heart, wherefore the Roman spear
For thy sake I accounted dear.”—
My Jesus! King of Grace.
. . . Without a veil, to give
Whiteness before Thy Face that I might live.—
“Am I too poor to dress
Thee in My royal robe of righteousness?
Challenge and prove My Love's excess.”—
Give, Lord, I will receive.
Whiteness before Thy Face that I might live.—
“Am I too poor to dress
Thee in My royal robe of righteousness?
Challenge and prove My Love's excess.”—
Give, Lord, I will receive.
. . . Without a pool wherein
To wash my piteous self and make me clean.—
“My Blood hath washed away
Thy guilt, and still I wash thee day by day:
Only take heed to trust and pray.”—
Lord, help me to begin.
To wash my piteous self and make me clean.—
“My Blood hath washed away
Thy guilt, and still I wash thee day by day:
Only take heed to trust and pray.”—
Lord, help me to begin.
[Lord Jesus, who would think that I am Thine?]
Lord Jesus, who would think that I am Thine?
Ah, who would think
Who sees me ready to turn back or sink,
That Thou art mine?
Ah, who would think
Who sees me ready to turn back or sink,
That Thou art mine?
I cannot hold Thee fast tho' Thou art mine:
Hold Thou me fast,
So earth shall know at last and heaven at last
That I am Thine.
Hold Thou me fast,
So earth shall know at last and heaven at last
That I am Thine.
“The Name of Jesus.”
Jesus, Lord God from all eternity,
Whom love of us brought down to shame,
All the rest is but vanity
Which others strive to win:
Where their hopes end my joys begin.
Whom love of us brought down to shame,
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Which others strive to win:
Where their hopes end my joys begin.
I will not look upon a rose
Though it is fair to see:
The flowers planted in Paradise
Are budding now for me.
Red roses like love visible
Are blowing on their tree,
Or white like virgin purity.
Though it is fair to see:
The flowers planted in Paradise
Are budding now for me.
Red roses like love visible
Are blowing on their tree,
Or white like virgin purity.
I will not look unto the sun
Which setteth night by night:
In the untrodden courts of Heaven
My crown shall be more bright.
Lo, in the New Jerusalem
Founded and built aright
My very feet shall tread on light.
Which setteth night by night:
In the untrodden courts of Heaven
My crown shall be more bright.
Lo, in the New Jerusalem
Founded and built aright
My very feet shall tread on light.
With foolish riches of this World
I have bought treasure, where
Nought perisheth: for this white veil
I gave my golden hair;
I gave the beauty of my face
For vigils, fasts and prayer;
I gave all for this Cross I bear.
I have bought treasure, where
Nought perisheth: for this white veil
I gave my golden hair;
I gave the beauty of my face
For vigils, fasts and prayer;
I gave all for this Cross I bear.
My heart trembled when first I took
The vows which must be kept;
At first it was a weariness
To watch when once I slept.
The path was rough and sharp with thorns;
My feet bled as I stepped;
The Cross was heavy and I wept.
The vows which must be kept;
At first it was a weariness
To watch when once I slept.
The path was rough and sharp with thorns;
My feet bled as I stepped;
The Cross was heavy and I wept.
While still the names rang in mine ears
Of daughter, sister, wife;
The outside world still looked so fair
To my weak eyes, and rife
With beauty; my heart almost failed;
Then in the desperate strife
I prayed, as one who prays for life,
Of daughter, sister, wife;
The outside world still looked so fair
To my weak eyes, and rife
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Then in the desperate strife
I prayed, as one who prays for life,
Until I grew to love what once
Had been so burdensome.
So now when I am faint, because
Hope deferred seems to numb
My heart, I yet can plead; and say
Although my lips are dumb:
“The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.”
Had been so burdensome.
So now when I am faint, because
Hope deferred seems to numb
My heart, I yet can plead; and say
Although my lips are dumb:
“The Spirit and the Bride say, Come.”
Song.
[We buried her among the flowers]
We buried her among the flowers
At falling of the leaf,
And choked back all our tears; her joy
Could never be our grief.
At falling of the leaf,
And choked back all our tears; her joy
Could never be our grief.
She lies among the living flowers
And grass, the only thing
That perishes;—or is it that
Our Autumn was her Spring?
And grass, the only thing
That perishes;—or is it that
Our Autumn was her Spring?
Doubtless, if we could see her face,
The smile is settled there
Which almost broke our hearts, when last
We knelt by her in prayer.
The smile is settled there
Which almost broke our hearts, when last
We knelt by her in prayer.
When with tired eyes and failing breath
And hands crossed on her breast
Perhaps she saw her Guardian spread
His wings above her rest.
And hands crossed on her breast
Perhaps she saw her Guardian spread
His wings above her rest.
So she sleeps hidden in the flowers:
But yet a little while
And we shall see her wake, and rise
Fair, with the selfsame smile.
But yet a little while
And we shall see her wake, and rise
Fair, with the selfsame smile.
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Grain by grain, His hand
Numbers the innumerable sand.
Numbers the innumerable sand.
Lord, I lift to Thee
In peace what is and what shall be:
In peace what is and what shall be:
Lord, in peace I trust
To Thee all spirits and all dust.
To Thee all spirits and all dust.
[Lord, carry me.—Nay, but I grant thee strength]
Lord, carry me.—Nay, but I grant thee strength
To walk and work thy way to Heaven at length.—
To walk and work thy way to Heaven at length.—
Lord, why then am I weak?—Because I give
Power to the weak, and bid the dying live.—
Power to the weak, and bid the dying live.—
Lord, I am tired.—He hath not much desired
The goal, who at the starting-point is tired.—
The goal, who at the starting-point is tired.—
Lord, dost Thou know?—I know what is in man;
What the flesh can, and what the spirit can.—
What the flesh can, and what the spirit can.—
Lord, dost Thou care?—Yea, for thy gain or loss
So much I cared, it brought Me to the Cross.—
So much I cared, it brought Me to the Cross.—
Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.—
Good is the word; but rise, for life is brief.
Good is the word; but rise, for life is brief.
The follower is not greater than the Chief:
Follow thou Me along My way of grief.
Follow thou Me along My way of grief.
[Lord, I am here.—But, child, I look for thee]
Lord, I am here.—But, child, I look for theeElsewhere and nearer Me.—
Lord, that way moans a wide insatiate sea:
How can I come to Thee?—
Set foot upon the water, test and see
If thou canst come to Me.—
Couldst Thou not send a boat to carry me,
Or dolphin swimming free?—
Nay, boat nor fish if thy will faileth thee:
For My Will too is free.—
O Lord, I am afraid.—Take hold on Me:
I am stronger than the sea.—
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I made and rule the sea,
I bring thee to the haven where thou wouldst be.
[New creatures; the Creator still the Same]
New creatures; the Creator still the SameFor ever and for ever: therefore we
Win hope from God's unsearchable decree
And glorify His still unchanging Name.
We too are still the same: and still our claim,
Our trust, our stay, is Jesus, none but He:
He still the Same regards us, and still we
Mount toward Him in old love's accustomed flame.
We know Thy wounded Hands: and Thou dost know
Our praying hands, our hands that clasp and cling
To hold Thee fast and not to let Thee go.
All else be new then, Lord, as Thou hast said:
Since it is Thou, we dare not be afraid,
Our King of old and still our Self-same King.
“King of kings and Lord of lords.”
Is this that Name as ointment poured forthFor which the virgins love Thee; King of kings
And Lord of lords? All Seraphs clad in wings;
All Cherubs and all Wheels which south and north,
Which east and west turn not in going forth;
All many-semblanced ordered Spirits, as rings
Of rainbow in unwonted fashionings,
Might answer, Yes. But we from south and north,
From east and west, a feeble folk who came
By desert ways in quest of land unseen,
A promised land of pasture ever green
And ever springing ever singing wave,
Know best Thy Name of Jesus: Blessed Name,
Man's life and resurrection from the grave.
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[Thy Name, O Christ, as incense streaming forth]
Thy Name, O Christ, as incense streaming forth
Sweetens our names before God's Holy Face;
Luring us from the south and from the north
Unto the sacred place.
Sweetens our names before God's Holy Face;
Luring us from the south and from the north
Unto the sacred place.
In Thee God's promise is Amen and Yea.
What art Thou to us? Prize of every lot,
Shepherd and Door, our Life and Truth and Way:—
Nay, Lord, what art Thou not?
What art Thou to us? Prize of every lot,
Shepherd and Door, our Life and Truth and Way:—
Nay, Lord, what art Thou not?
“The Good Shepherd.”
O Shepherd with the bleeding Feet,
Good Shepherd with the pleading Voice,
What seekest Thou from hill to hill?
Sweet were the valley pastures, sweet
The sound of flocks that bleat their joys,
And eat and drink at will.
Is one worth seeking, when Thou hast of Thine
Ninety and nine?—
Good Shepherd with the pleading Voice,
What seekest Thou from hill to hill?
Sweet were the valley pastures, sweet
The sound of flocks that bleat their joys,
And eat and drink at will.
Is one worth seeking, when Thou hast of Thine
Ninety and nine?—
How should I stay My bleeding Feet,
How should I hush My pleading Voice?
I Who chose death and clomb a hill,
Accounting gall and wormwood sweet,
That hundredfold might bud My joys
For love's sake and good will.
I seek My one, for all there bide of Mine
Ninety and nine.
How should I hush My pleading Voice?
I Who chose death and clomb a hill,
Accounting gall and wormwood sweet,
That hundredfold might bud My joys
For love's sake and good will.
I seek My one, for all there bide of Mine
Ninety and nine.
“Rejoice with Me.”
Little Lamb, who lost thee?—I myself, none other.—
Little Lamb, who found thee?—
Jesus, Shepherd, Brother.
Ah, Lord, what I cost Thee!
Canst Thou still desire?—
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Still I lift thee higher,
Draw thee nigher.
[Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?]
Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
Yea, Lord, altho' Thou say me nay:
Shall not His Will be to me life and light?
Yea, Lord, altho' Thou slay.
Yea, Lord, altho' Thou say me nay:
Shall not His Will be to me life and light?
Yea, Lord, altho' Thou slay.
Yet, Lord, remembering turn and sift and see,
Remember tho' Thou sift me thro',
Remember my desire, remember me,
Remember, Lord, and do.
Remember tho' Thou sift me thro',
Remember my desire, remember me,
Remember, Lord, and do.
[Me and my gift: kind Lord, behold]
Me and my gift: kind Lord, behold,
Be not extreme to test or sift;
Thy Love can turn to fire and gold
Me and my gift.
Be not extreme to test or sift;
Thy Love can turn to fire and gold
Me and my gift.
Myself and mine to Thee I lift:
Gather us to Thee from the cold
Dead outer world where dead things drift.
Gather us to Thee from the cold
Dead outer world where dead things drift.
If much were mine, then manifold
Should be the offering of my thrift:
I am but poor, yet love makes bold
Me and my gift.
Should be the offering of my thrift:
I am but poor, yet love makes bold
Me and my gift.
“He cannot deny Himself.”
Love still is Love, and doeth all things well,
Whether He show me heaven or hell
Or earth in her decay
Passing away
On a day.
Whether He show me heaven or hell
Or earth in her decay
Passing away
On a day.
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Love still is Love, tho' He should say, “Depart,”
And break my incorrigible heart,
And set me out of sight
Widowed of light
In the night.
And break my incorrigible heart,
And set me out of sight
Widowed of light
In the night.
Love still is Love, is Love, if He should say,
“Come,” on that uttermost dread day;
“Come,” unto very me,
“Come where I be,
Come and see.”
“Come,” on that uttermost dread day;
“Come,” unto very me,
“Come where I be,
Come and see.”
Love still is Love, whatever comes to pass:
O Only Love, make me Thy glass,
Thy pleasure to fulfil
By loving still
Come what will.
O Only Love, make me Thy glass,
Thy pleasure to fulfil
By loving still
Come what will.
“Slain from the foundation of the world.”
Slain for man, slain for me, O Lamb of God, look down;
Loving to the end look down, behold and see:
Turn Thine Eyes of pity, turn not on us Thy frown,
O Lamb of God, slain for man, slain for me.
Loving to the end look down, behold and see:
Turn Thine Eyes of pity, turn not on us Thy frown,
O Lamb of God, slain for man, slain for me.
Mark the wrestling, mark the race for indeed a crown;
Mark our chariots how we drive them heavily;
Mark the foe upon our track blasting thundering down,
O Lamb of God, slain for man, slain for me.
Mark our chariots how we drive them heavily;
Mark the foe upon our track blasting thundering down,
O Lamb of God, slain for man, slain for me.
Set as a Cloudy Pillar against them Thy frown,
Thy Face of Light toward us gracious utterly;
Help granting, hope granting, until Thou grant a crown,
O Lamb of God, slain for man, slain for me.
Thy Face of Light toward us gracious utterly;
Help granting, hope granting, until Thou grant a crown,
O Lamb of God, slain for man, slain for me.
[Lord Jesu, Thou art sweetness to my soul]
Lord Jesu, Thou art sweetness to my soul:
I to myself am bitterness:
Regard my fainting struggle toward the goal,
Regard my manifold distress,
O Sweet Jesu.
I to myself am bitterness:
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Regard my manifold distress,
O Sweet Jesu.
Thou art Thyself my goal, O Lord my King:
Stretch forth Thy hand to save my soul:
What matters more or less of journeying?
While I touch Thee I touch my goal,
O Sweet Jesu.
Stretch forth Thy hand to save my soul:
What matters more or less of journeying?
While I touch Thee I touch my goal,
O Sweet Jesu.
[I, Lord, Thy foolish sinner low and small]
I, Lord, Thy foolish sinner low and small,
Lack all.
His heart too high was set
Who asked, What lack I yet?
Woe's me at my most woeful pass!
I, Lord, who scarcely dare adore,
Weep sore:
Steeped in this rotten world I fear to rot.
Alas! what lack I not?
Alas! alas for me! alas
More and yet more!—
Lack all.
His heart too high was set
Who asked, What lack I yet?
Woe's me at my most woeful pass!
I, Lord, who scarcely dare adore,
Weep sore:
Steeped in this rotten world I fear to rot.
Alas! what lack I not?
Alas! alas for me! alas
More and yet more!—
Nay, stand up on thy feet, betaking thee
To Me.
Bring fear; but much more bring
Hope to thy patient King:
What, is My pleasure in thy death?
I loved that youth who little knew
The true
Width of his want, yet worshipped with goodwill:
So love I thee, and still
Prolong thy day of grace and breath.
Rise up and do.—
To Me.
Bring fear; but much more bring
Hope to thy patient King:
What, is My pleasure in thy death?
I loved that youth who little knew
The true
Width of his want, yet worshipped with goodwill:
So love I thee, and still
Prolong thy day of grace and breath.
Rise up and do.—
Lord, let me know mine end, and certify
When I
Shall die and have to stand
Helpless on Either Hand,
Cut off, cut off, my day of grace.—
Not so: for what is that to thee?
I see
The measure and the number of thy day:
Keep patience, tho' I slay;
Keep patience till thou see My Face.
Follow thou Me.
When I
Shall die and have to stand
Helpless on Either Hand,
Cut off, cut off, my day of grace.—
Not so: for what is that to thee?
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The measure and the number of thy day:
Keep patience, tho' I slay;
Keep patience till thou see My Face.
Follow thou Me.
“Because He first loved us.”
I was hungry, and Thou feddest me;
Yea, Thou gavest drink to slake my thirst:
O Lord, what love gift can I offer Thee
Who hast loved me first?—
Yea, Thou gavest drink to slake my thirst:
O Lord, what love gift can I offer Thee
Who hast loved me first?—
Feed My hungry brethren for My sake;
Give them drink, for love of them and Me:
Love them as I loved thee, when Bread I brake
In pure love of thee.—
Give them drink, for love of them and Me:
Love them as I loved thee, when Bread I brake
In pure love of thee.—
Yea, Lord, I will serve them by Thy grace;
Love Thee, seek Thee, in them; wait and pray:
Yet would I love Thyself, Lord, face to face,
Heart to heart, one day.—
Love Thee, seek Thee, in them; wait and pray:
Yet would I love Thyself, Lord, face to face,
Heart to heart, one day.—
Let today fulfil its daily task,
Fill thy heart and hand to them and Me:
Tomorrow thou shalt ask, and shalt not ask
Half I keep for thee.
Fill thy heart and hand to them and Me:
Tomorrow thou shalt ask, and shalt not ask
Half I keep for thee.
[Lord, hast Thou so loved us, and will not we]
Lord, hast Thou so loved us, and will not weLove Thee with heart and mind and strength and soul,
Desiring Thee beyond our glorious goal,
Beyond the heaven of heavens desiring Thee?
Each saint, all saints cry out: Yea me, yea me,
Thou hast desired beyond an aureole,
Beyond Thy many Crowns, beyond the whole
Ninety and nine unwandering family.
Souls in green pastures of the watered land,
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Abide with Thee and in Thee are at rest:
Yet evermore, kind Lord, renew Thy quest
After new wanderers; such as once Thy Hand
Gathered, Thy Shoulders bore, Thy Heart caressed.
[As the dove which found no rest]
As the dove which found no rest
For the sole of her foot, flew back
To the ark her only nest
And found safety there;
Because Noah put forth his hand,
Drew her in from ruin and wrack,
And was more to her than the land
And the air:
For the sole of her foot, flew back
To the ark her only nest
And found safety there;
Because Noah put forth his hand,
Drew her in from ruin and wrack,
And was more to her than the land
And the air:
So my spirit, like that dove,
Fleeth away to an ark
Where dwelleth a Heart of Love,
A Hand pierced to save,
Tho' the sun and the moon should fail,
Tho' the stars drop into the dark,
And my body lay itself pale
In a grave.
Fleeth away to an ark
Where dwelleth a Heart of Love,
A Hand pierced to save,
Tho' the sun and the moon should fail,
Tho' the stars drop into the dark,
And my body lay itself pale
In a grave.
“Thou art Fairer than the children of men.”
A rose, a lily, and the Face of ChristHave all our hearts sufficed:
For He is Rose of Sharon nobly born,
Our Rose without a thorn;
And He is Lily of the Valley, He
Most sweet in purity.
But when we come to name Him as He is,
Godhead, Perfection, Bliss,
All tongues fall silent, while pure hearts alone
Complete their orison.
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“As the Apple Tree among the trees of the wood.”
As one red rose in a garden where all other roses are whiteBlossoms alone in its glory, crowned all alone
In a solitude of own sweetness and fragrance of own delight,
With loveliness not another's and thorns its own;
As one ruddy sun amid million orbs comely and colourless,
Among all others, above all others is known;
As it were alone in the garden, alone in the heavenly place,
Chief and centre of all, in fellowship yet alone.
[None other Lamb, none other Name]
None other Lamb, none other Name,
None other Hope in heaven or earth or sea,
None other Hiding-place from guilt and shame,
None beside Thee.
None other Hope in heaven or earth or sea,
None other Hiding-place from guilt and shame,
None beside Thee.
My faith burns low, my hope burns low,
Only my heart's desire cries out in me
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,
Cries out to Thee.
Only my heart's desire cries out in me
By the deep thunder of its want and woe,
Cries out to Thee.
Lord, Thou art Life tho' I be dead,
Love's Fire Thou art however cold I be:
Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head,
Nor home, but Thee.
Love's Fire Thou art however cold I be:
Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head,
Nor home, but Thee.
“Thy Friend and thy Father's Friend forget not.”
Friends, I commend to you the narrow way:Not because I, please God, will walk therein,
But rather for the Love Feast of that day,
The exceeding prize which whoso will may win.
Earth is half spent and rotting at the core,
Here hollow death's heads mock us with a grin,
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Men heap up pleasures and enlarge desire,
Outlive desire, and famished evermore
Consume themselves within the undying fire.
Yet not for this God made us: not for this
Christ sought us far and near to draw us nigher,
Sought us and found and paid our penalties.
If one could answer “Nay” to God's command,
Who shall say “Nay” when Christ pleads all He is
For us, and holds us with a wounded Hand?
“Surely He hath borne our griefs.”
Christ's Heart was wrung for me, if mine is sore;And if my feet are weary, His have bled;
He had no place wherein to lay His Head;
If I am burdened, He was burdened more.
The cup I drink, He drank of long before;
He felt the unuttered anguish which I dread;
He hungered Who the hungry thousands fed,
And thirsted Who the world's refreshment bore.
If grief be such a looking-glass as shows
Christ's Face and man's in some sort made alike,
Then grief is pleasure with a subtle taste:
Wherefore should any fret or faint or haste?
Grief is not grievous to a soul that knows
Christ comes,—and listens for that hour to strike.
“They toil not, neither do they spin.”
Clother of the lily, Feeder of the sparrow,Father of the fatherless, dear Lord,
Tho' Thou set me as a mark against Thine arrow,
As a prey unto Thy sword,
As a ploughed up field beneath Thy harrow,
As a captive in Thy cord,
Let that cord be love; and some day make my narrow
Hallowed bed according to Thy Word.
Amen.
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[Darkness and light are both alike to Thee]
Darkness and light are both alike to Thee:Therefore to Thee I lift my darkened face;
Upward I look with eyes that fail to see,
Athirst for future light and present grace.
I trust the Hand of Love I scarcely trace.
With breath that fails I cry, Remember me:
Add breath to breath, so I may run my race
That where Thou art there may Thy servant be.
For Thou art gulf and fountain of my love,
I unreturning torrent to Thy sea,
Yea, Thou the measureless ocean for my rill:
Seeking I find, and finding seek Thee still:
And oh! that I had wings as hath a dove,
Then would I flee away to rest with Thee.
“And now why tarriest thou?”
Lord, grant us grace to mount by steps of grace
From grace to grace nearer, my God, to Thee;
Not tarrying for tomorrow,
Lest we lie down in sorrow
And never see
Unveiled Thy Face.
From grace to grace nearer, my God, to Thee;
Not tarrying for tomorrow,
Lest we lie down in sorrow
And never see
Unveiled Thy Face.
Life is a vapour vanishing in haste;
Life is a day whose sun grows pale to set;
Life is a stint and sorrow,
One day and not the morrow;
Precious, while yet
It runs to waste.
Life is a day whose sun grows pale to set;
Life is a stint and sorrow,
One day and not the morrow;
Precious, while yet
It runs to waste.
Lord, strengthen us; lest fainting by the way
We come not to Thee, we who come from far;
Lord, bring us to that morrow
Which makes an end of sorrow,
Where all saints are
On holyday.
We come not to Thee, we who come from far;
Lord, bring us to that morrow
Which makes an end of sorrow,
Where all saints are
On holyday.
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Where all the saints rest who have heard Thy call,
Have risen and striven and now rejoice in rest:
Call us too home from sorrow
To rest in Thee tomorrow;
In Thee our Best,
In Thee our All.
Have risen and striven and now rejoice in rest:
Call us too home from sorrow
To rest in Thee tomorrow;
In Thee our Best,
In Thee our All.
[Have I not striven, my God, and watched and prayed?]
Have I not striven, my God, and watched and prayed?Have I not wrestled in mine agony?
Wherefore still turn Thy Face of Grace from me?
Is Thine Arm shortened that Thou canst not aid?
Thy silence breaks my heart: speak tho' to upbraid,
For Thy rebuke yet bids us follow Thee.
I grope and grasp not; gaze, but cannot see.
When out of sight and reach my bed is made,
And piteous men and women cease to blame
Whispering and wistful of my gain or loss;
Thou Who for my sake once didst feel the Cross,
Lord, wilt Thou turn and look upon me then,
And in Thy Glory bring to nought my shame,
Confessing me to angels and to men?
“God is our Hope and Strength.”
Tempest and terror below; but Christ the Almighty above.Tho' the depth of the deep overflow, tho' fire run along on the ground,
Tho' all billows and flames make a noise,—and where is an Ark for the dove?—
Tho' sorrows rejoice against joys, and death and destruction abound:
Yet Jesus abolisheth death, and Jesus Who loves us we love;
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Thy wanderers call and recall, Thy dead men lift out of the ground;
O Jesus, Who lovest us all, stoop low from Thy Glory above:
Where sin hath abounded make grace to abound and to superabound,
Till we gaze on Thee face unto Face, and respond to Thee love unto Love.
[Day and night the Accuser makes no pause]
Day and night the Accuser makes no pause,
Day and night protest the Righteous Laws,
Good and Evil witness to man's flaws;
Man the culprit, man's the ruined cause,
Man midway to death's devouring jaws
And the worm that gnaws.
Day and night protest the Righteous Laws,
Good and Evil witness to man's flaws;
Man the culprit, man's the ruined cause,
Man midway to death's devouring jaws
And the worm that gnaws.
Day and night our Jesus makes no pause,
Pleads His own fulfilment of all laws,
Veils with His Perfections mortal flaws,
Clears the culprit, pleads the desperate cause,
Plucks the dead from death's devouring jaws
And the worm that gnaws.
Pleads His own fulfilment of all laws,
Veils with His Perfections mortal flaws,
Clears the culprit, pleads the desperate cause,
Plucks the dead from death's devouring jaws
And the worm that gnaws.
[O mine enemy]
O mine enemy
Rejoice not over me!
Jesus waiteth to be gracious:
I will yet arise,
Mounting free and far,
Past sun and star,
To a house prepared and spacious
In the skies.
Rejoice not over me!
Jesus waiteth to be gracious:
I will yet arise,
Mounting free and far,
Past sun and star,
To a house prepared and spacious
In the skies.
Lord, for Thine own sake
Kindle my heart and break;
Make mine anguish efficacious
Wedded to Thine own:
Be not Thy dear pain,
Thy Love in vain,
Thou Who waitest to be gracious
On Thy Throne.
Kindle my heart and break;
Make mine anguish efficacious
Wedded to Thine own:
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Thy Love in vain,
Thou Who waitest to be gracious
On Thy Throne.
[Lord, dost Thou look on me, and will not I]
Lord, dost Thou look on me, and will not ILaunch out my heart to Heaven to look on Thee?
Here if one loved me I should turn to see,
And often think on him and often sigh,
And by a tender friendship make reply
To love gratuitous poured forth on me,
And nurse a hope of happy days to be,
And mean “until we meet” in each good-bye.
Lord, Thou dost look and love is in Thine Eyes,
Thy Heart is set upon me day and night,
Thou stoopest low to set me far above:
O Lord, that I may love Thee make me wise;
That I may see and love Thee grant me sight;
And give me love that I may give Thee love.
“Peace I leave with you.”
Tumult and turmoil, trouble and toil,
Yet peace withal in a painful heart;
Never a grudge and never a broil,
And ever the better part.
Yet peace withal in a painful heart;
Never a grudge and never a broil,
And ever the better part.
O my King and my heart's own choice,
Stretch Thy Hand to Thy fluttering dove;
Teach me, call to me with Thy Voice,
Wrap me up in Thy Love.
Stretch Thy Hand to Thy fluttering dove;
Teach me, call to me with Thy Voice,
Wrap me up in Thy Love.
[O Christ our All in each, our All in all!]
O Christ our All in each, our All in all!Others have this or that, a love, a friend,
A trusted teacher, a long-worked-for end:
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Without Thee? fame or friend if such might be?
Thee wholly will I love, Thee wholly seek,
Follow Thy foot-track, hearken for Thy call.
O Christ mine All in all, my flesh is weak,
A trembling fawning tyrant unto me:
Turn, look upon me, let me hear Thee speak:
Tho' bitter billows of Thine utmost sea
Swathe me, and darkness build around its wall,
Yet will I rise, Thou lifting when I fall,
And if Thou hold me fast, yet cleave to Thee.
[Because Thy Love hath sought me]
Because Thy Love hath sought me,
All mine is Thine and Thine is mine:
Because Thy Blood hath bought me,
I will not be mine own but Thine.
All mine is Thine and Thine is mine:
Because Thy Blood hath bought me,
I will not be mine own but Thine.
I lift my heart to Thy Heart,
Thy Heart sole resting-place for mine:
Shall Thy Heart crave for my heart,
And shall not mine crave back for Thine?
Thy Heart sole resting-place for mine:
Shall Thy Heart crave for my heart,
And shall not mine crave back for Thine?
[Thy fainting spouse, yet still Thy spouse]
Thy fainting spouse, yet still Thy spouse;
Thy trembling dove, yet still Thy dove;
Thine own by mutual vows,
By mutual love.
Thy trembling dove, yet still Thy dove;
Thine own by mutual vows,
By mutual love.
Recall Thy vows, if not her vows;
Recall Thy Love, if not her love:
For weak she is, Thy spouse,
And tired, Thy dove.
Recall Thy Love, if not her love:
For weak she is, Thy spouse,
And tired, Thy dove.
“Like as the hart desireth the water brooks.”
My heart is yearning:
Behold my yearning heart,
And lean low to satisfy
Its lonely beseeching cry,
For Thou its fulness art.
Behold my yearning heart,
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Its lonely beseeching cry,
For Thou its fulness art.
Turn, as once turning
Thou didst behold Thy Saint
In deadly extremity;
Didst look, and win back to Thee
His will frightened and faint.
Thou didst behold Thy Saint
In deadly extremity;
Didst look, and win back to Thee
His will frightened and faint.
Kindle my burning
From Thine unkindled Fire;
Fill me with gifts and with grace
That I may behold Thy Face,
For Thee I desire.
From Thine unkindled Fire;
Fill me with gifts and with grace
That I may behold Thy Face,
For Thee I desire.
My heart is yearning,
Yearning and thrilling thro'
For Thy Love mine own of old,
For Thy Love unknown, untold,
Ever old, ever new.
Yearning and thrilling thro'
For Thy Love mine own of old,
For Thy Love unknown, untold,
Ever old, ever new.
“That where I am, there ye may be also.”
How know I that it looms lovely that land I have never seen,
With morning-glories and heartsease and unexampled green,
With neither heat nor cold in the balm-redolent air?
Some of this, not all, I know; but this is so;
Christ is there.
With morning-glories and heartsease and unexampled green,
With neither heat nor cold in the balm-redolent air?
Some of this, not all, I know; but this is so;
Christ is there.
How know I that blessedness befalls who dwell in Paradise,
The outwearied hearts refreshing, rekindling the worn-out eyes,
All souls singing, seeing, rejoicing everywhere?
Nay, much more than this I know; for this is so;
Christ is there.
The outwearied hearts refreshing, rekindling the worn-out eyes,
All souls singing, seeing, rejoicing everywhere?
Nay, much more than this I know; for this is so;
Christ is there.
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O Lord Christ, Whom having not seen I love and desire to love,
O Lord Christ, Who lookest on me uncomely yet still Thy dove,
Take me to Thee in Paradise, Thine own made fair;
For whatever else I know, this thing is so;
Thou art there.
O Lord Christ, Who lookest on me uncomely yet still Thy dove,
Take me to Thee in Paradise, Thine own made fair;
For whatever else I know, this thing is so;
Thou art there.
“Judge not according to the appearance.”
Lord, purge our eyes to see
Within the seed a tree,
Within the glowing egg a bird,
Within the shroud a butterfly:
Within the seed a tree,
Within the glowing egg a bird,
Within the shroud a butterfly:
Till taught by such, we see
Beyond all creatures Thee,
And hearken for Thy tender word,
And hear it, “Fear not: it is I.”
Beyond all creatures Thee,
And hearken for Thy tender word,
And hear it, “Fear not: it is I.”
[My God, wilt Thou accept, and will not we]
My God, wilt Thou accept, and will not we
Give aught to Thee?
The kept we lose, the offered we retain
Or find again.
Give aught to Thee?
The kept we lose, the offered we retain
Or find again.
Yet if our gift were lost, we well might lose
All for Thy use:
Well lost for Thee, Whose Love is all for us
Gratuitous.
All for Thy use:
Well lost for Thee, Whose Love is all for us
Gratuitous.
[A chill blank world. Yet over the utmost sea]
A chill blank world. Yet over the utmost sea
The light of a coming dawn is rising to me,
No more than a paler shade of darkness as yet;
While I lift my heart, O Lord, my heart unto Thee
Who hast not forgotten me, yea, Who wilt not forget.
The light of a coming dawn is rising to me,
No more than a paler shade of darkness as yet;
While I lift my heart, O Lord, my heart unto Thee
Who hast not forgotten me, yea, Who wilt not forget.
Forget not Thy sorrowful servant, O Lord my God,
Weak as I cry, faint as I cry underneath Thy rod,
Soon to lie dumb before Thee a body devoid of breath,
Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, a sod to the sod:
Forget not my life, O my Lord, forget not my death.
Weak as I cry, faint as I cry underneath Thy rod,
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Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, a sod to the sod:
Forget not my life, O my Lord, forget not my death.
“The Chiefest among ten thousand.”
O Jesu, better than Thy giftsArt Thou Thine only Self to us!
Palm branch its triumph, harp uplifts
Its triumph-note melodious:
But what are such to such as we?
O Jesu, better than Thy saints
Art Thou Thine only Self to us!
The heart faints and the spirit faints
For only Thee all-Glorious,
For Thee, O only Lord, for Thee.
SOME FEASTS AND FASTS.
ADVENT SUNDAY.
Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out
With lighted lamps and garlands round about
To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.
With lighted lamps and garlands round about
To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.
It may be at the midnight, black as pitch,
Earth shall cast up her poor, cast up her rich.
Earth shall cast up her poor, cast up her rich.
It may be at the crowing of the cock
Earth shall upheave her depth, uproot her rock.
Earth shall upheave her depth, uproot her rock.
For lo, the Bridegroom fetcheth home the Bride:
His Hands are Hands she knows, she knows His Side.
His Hands are Hands she knows, she knows His Side.
Like pure Rebekah at the appointed place,
Veiled, she unveils her face to meet His Face.
Veiled, she unveils her face to meet His Face.
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Like great Queen Esther in her triumphing,
She triumphs in the Presence of her King.
She triumphs in the Presence of her King.
His Eyes are as a Dove's, and she's Dove-eyed;
He knows His lovely mirror, sister, Bride.
He knows His lovely mirror, sister, Bride.
He speaks with Dove-voice of exceeding love,
And she with love-voice of an answering Dove.
And she with love-voice of an answering Dove.
Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go we out
With lamps ablaze and garlands round about
To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.
With lamps ablaze and garlands round about
To meet Him in a rapture with a shout.
ADVENT
Earth grown old, yet still so green,
Deep beneath her crust of cold
Nurses fire unfelt, unseen:
Earth grown old.
Deep beneath her crust of cold
Nurses fire unfelt, unseen:
Earth grown old.
We who live are quickly told:
Millions more lie hid between
Inner swathings of her fold.
Millions more lie hid between
Inner swathings of her fold.
When will fire break up her screen?
When will life burst thro' her mould?
Earth, earth, earth, thy cold is keen,
Earth grown old.
When will life burst thro' her mould?
Earth, earth, earth, thy cold is keen,
Earth grown old.
[Sooner or later: yet at last]
Sooner or later: yet at last
The Jordan must be past;
The Jordan must be past;
It may be he will overflow
His banks the day we go;
His banks the day we go;
It may be that his cloven deep
Will stand up on a heap.
Will stand up on a heap.
Sooner or later: yet one day
We all must pass that way;
We all must pass that way;
Each man, each woman, humbled, pale,
Pass veiled within the veil;
Pass veiled within the veil;
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Child, parent, bride, companion,
Alone, alone, alone.
Alone, alone, alone.
For none a ransom can be paid,
A suretyship be made:
A suretyship be made:
I, bent by mine own burden, must
Enter my house of dust;
Enter my house of dust;
I, rated to the full amount,
Must render mine account.
Must render mine account.
When earth and sea shall empty all
Their graves of great and small;
Their graves of great and small;
When earth wrapped in a fiery flood
Shall no more hide her blood;
Shall no more hide her blood;
When mysteries shall be revealed;
All secrets be unsealed;
All secrets be unsealed;
When things of night, when things of shame,
Shall find at last a name,
Shall find at last a name,
Pealed for a hissing and a curse
Throughout the universe:
Throughout the universe:
Then Awful Judge, most Awful God,
Then cause to bud Thy rod,
Then cause to bud Thy rod,
To bloom with blossoms, and to give
Almonds; yea, bid us live.
Almonds; yea, bid us live.
I plead Thyself with Thee, I plead
Thee in our utter need:
Thee in our utter need:
Jesus, most Merciful of Men,
Show mercy on us then;
Show mercy on us then;
Lord God of Mercy and of men,
Show mercy on us then.
Show mercy on us then.
CHRISTMAS EVE.
Christmas hath a darkness
Brighter than the blazing noon,
Christmas hath a chillness
Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Brighter than the blazing noon,
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Warmer than the heat of June,
Christmas hath a beauty
Lovelier than the world can show:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Earth, strike up your music,
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
Birds that sing and bells that ring;
Heaven hath answering music
For all Angels soon to sing:
Earth, put on your whitest
Bridal robe of spotless snow:
For Christmas bringeth Jesus,
Brought for us so low.
CHRISTMAS DAY.
A baby is a harmless thing
And wins our hearts with one accord,
And Flower of Babies was their King,
Jesus Christ our Lord:
Lily of lilies He
Upon His Mother's knee;
Rose of roses, soon to be
Crowned with thorns on leafless tree.
And wins our hearts with one accord,
And Flower of Babies was their King,
Jesus Christ our Lord:
Lily of lilies He
Upon His Mother's knee;
Rose of roses, soon to be
Crowned with thorns on leafless tree.
A lamb is innocent and mild
And merry on the soft green sod;
And Jesus Christ, the Undefiled,
Is the Lamb of God:
Only spotless He
Upon His Mother's knee;
White and ruddy, soon to be
Sacrificed for you and me.
And merry on the soft green sod;
And Jesus Christ, the Undefiled,
Is the Lamb of God:
Only spotless He
Upon His Mother's knee;
White and ruddy, soon to be
Sacrificed for you and me.
Nay, lamb is not so sweet a word,
Nor lily half so pure a name;
Another name our hearts hath stirred,
Kindling them to flame:
“Jesus” certainly
Is music and melody:
Heart with heart in harmony
Carol we and worship we.
Nor lily half so pure a name;
Another name our hearts hath stirred,
Kindling them to flame:
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Is music and melody:
Heart with heart in harmony
Carol we and worship we.
CHRISTMASTIDE.
Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token,
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.
ST. JOHN, APOSTLE.
Earth cannot bar flame from ascending,
Hell cannot bind light from descending,
Death cannot finish life never ending.
Hell cannot bind light from descending,
Death cannot finish life never ending.
Eagle and sun gaze at each other,
Eagle at sun, brother at Brother,
Loving in peace and joy one another.
Eagle at sun, brother at Brother,
Loving in peace and joy one another.
O St. John, with chains for thy wages,
Strong thy rock where the storm-blast rages,
Rock of refuge, the Rock of Ages.
Strong thy rock where the storm-blast rages,
Rock of refuge, the Rock of Ages.
Rome hath passed with her awful voice,
Earth is passing with all her joys,
Heaven shall pass away with a noise.
Earth is passing with all her joys,
Heaven shall pass away with a noise.
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So from us all follies that please us,
So from us all falsehoods that ease us,—
Only all saints abide with their Jesus.
So from us all falsehoods that ease us,—
Only all saints abide with their Jesus.
Jesus, in love looking down hither,
Jesus, by love draw us up thither,
That we in Thee may abide together.
Jesus, by love draw us up thither,
That we in Thee may abide together.
[“Beloved, let us love one another,” says St. John]
“Beloved, let us love one another,” says St. John,
Eagle of eagles calling from above:
Words of strong nourishment for life to feed upon,
“Beloved, let us love.”
Eagle of eagles calling from above:
Words of strong nourishment for life to feed upon,
“Beloved, let us love.”
Voice of an eagle, yea, Voice of the Dove:
If we may love, winter is past and gone;
Publish we, praise we, for lo! it is enough.
If we may love, winter is past and gone;
Publish we, praise we, for lo! it is enough.
More sunny than sunshine that ever yet shone,
Sweetener of the bitter, smoother of the rough,
Highest lesson of all lessons for all to con,
“Beloved, let us love.”
Sweetener of the bitter, smoother of the rough,
Highest lesson of all lessons for all to con,
“Beloved, let us love.”
HOLY INNOCENTS.
They scarcely waked before they slept,
They scarcely wept before they laughed;
They drank indeed death's bitter draught,
But all its bitterest dregs were kept
And drained by Mothers while they wept.
They scarcely wept before they laughed;
They drank indeed death's bitter draught,
But all its bitterest dregs were kept
And drained by Mothers while they wept.
From Heaven the speechless Infants speak:
Weep not (they say), our Mothers dear,
For swords nor sorrows come not here.
Now we are strong who were so weak,
And all is ours we could not seek.
Weep not (they say), our Mothers dear,
For swords nor sorrows come not here.
Now we are strong who were so weak,
And all is ours we could not seek.
We bloom among the blooming flowers,
We sing among the singing birds;
Wisdom we have who wanted words:
Here morning knows not evening hours,
All's rainbow here without the showers.
We sing among the singing birds;
Wisdom we have who wanted words:
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All's rainbow here without the showers.
And softer than our Mother's breast,
And closer than our Mother's arm,
Is here the Love that keeps us warm
And broods above our happy nest.
Dear Mothers, come: for Heaven is best.
And closer than our Mother's arm,
Is here the Love that keeps us warm
And broods above our happy nest.
Dear Mothers, come: for Heaven is best.
[Unspotted lambs to follow the one Lamb]
Unspotted lambs to follow the one Lamb,
Unspotted doves to wait on the one Dove;
To whom Love saith, “Be with Me where I am,”
And lo! their answer unto Love is love.
Unspotted doves to wait on the one Dove;
To whom Love saith, “Be with Me where I am,”
And lo! their answer unto Love is love.
For tho' I know not any note they know,
Nor know one word of all their song above,
I know Love speaks to them, and even so
I know the answer unto Love is love.
Nor know one word of all their song above,
I know Love speaks to them, and even so
I know the answer unto Love is love.
EPIPHANY.
“Lord Babe, if Thou art He
We sought for patiently,
Where is Thy court?
Hither may prophecy and star resort;
Men heed not their report.”—
“Bow down and worship, righteous man:
This Infant of a span
Is He man sought for since the world began!”—
“Then, Lord, accept my gold, too base a thing
For Thee, of all kings King.”—
We sought for patiently,
Where is Thy court?
Hither may prophecy and star resort;
Men heed not their report.”—
“Bow down and worship, righteous man:
This Infant of a span
Is He man sought for since the world began!”—
“Then, Lord, accept my gold, too base a thing
For Thee, of all kings King.”—
“Lord Babe, despite Thy youth
I hold Thee of a truth
Both Good and Great:
But wherefore dost Thou keep so mean a state,
Low-lying desolate?”—
“Bow down and worship, righteous seer:
The Lord our God is here
Approachable, Who bids us all draw near.”—
“Wherefore to Thee I offer frankincense,
Thou Sole Omnipotence.”—
I hold Thee of a truth
Both Good and Great:
But wherefore dost Thou keep so mean a state,
Low-lying desolate?”—
“Bow down and worship, righteous seer:
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Approachable, Who bids us all draw near.”—
“Wherefore to Thee I offer frankincense,
Thou Sole Omnipotence.”—
“But I have only brought
Myrrh; no wise afterthought
Instructed me
To gather pearls or gems, or choice to see
Coral or ivory.”—
“Not least thine offering proves thee wise:
For myrrh means sacrifice,
And He that lives, this Same is He that dies.”—
“Then here is myrrh: alas! yea, woe is me
That myrrh befitteth Thee.”—
Myrrh; no wise afterthought
Instructed me
To gather pearls or gems, or choice to see
Coral or ivory.”—
“Not least thine offering proves thee wise:
For myrrh means sacrifice,
And He that lives, this Same is He that dies.”—
“Then here is myrrh: alas! yea, woe is me
That myrrh befitteth Thee.”—
Myrrh, frankincense, and gold:
And lo! from wintry fold
Good-will doth bring
A Lamb, the innocent likeness of this King
Whom stars and seraphs sing:
And lo! the bird of love, a Dove
Flutters and coos above:
And Dove and Lamb and Babe agree in love:—
Come all mankind, come all creation hither,
Come, worship Christ together.
And lo! from wintry fold
Good-will doth bring
A Lamb, the innocent likeness of this King
Whom stars and seraphs sing:
And lo! the bird of love, a Dove
Flutters and coos above:
And Dove and Lamb and Babe agree in love:—
Come all mankind, come all creation hither,
Come, worship Christ together.
EPIPHANYTIDE.
Trembling before Thee we fall down to adore Thee,
Shamefaced and trembling we lift our eyes to Thee:
O First and with the last! annul our ruined past,
Rebuild us to Thy glory, set us free
From sin and from sorrow to fall down and worship Thee.
Shamefaced and trembling we lift our eyes to Thee:
O First and with the last! annul our ruined past,
Rebuild us to Thy glory, set us free
From sin and from sorrow to fall down and worship Thee.
Full of pity view us, stretch Thy sceptre to us,
Bid us live that we may give ourselves to Thee:
O faithful Lord and True! stand up for us and do,
Make us lovely, make us new, set us free—
Heart and soul and spirit—to bring all and worship Thee.
Bid us live that we may give ourselves to Thee:
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Make us lovely, make us new, set us free—
Heart and soul and spirit—to bring all and worship Thee.
SEPTUAGESIMA.
“So run that ye may obtain.”
One step more, and the race is ended;
One word more, and the lesson's done;
One toil more, and a long rest follows
At set of sun.
One word more, and the lesson's done;
One toil more, and a long rest follows
At set of sun.
Who would fail, for one step withholden?
Who would fail, for one word unsaid?
Who would fail, for a pause too early?
Sound sleep the dead.
Who would fail, for one word unsaid?
Who would fail, for a pause too early?
Sound sleep the dead.
One step more, and the goal receives us;
One word more, and life's task is done;
One toil more, and the Cross is carried
And sets the sun.
One word more, and life's task is done;
One toil more, and the Cross is carried
And sets the sun.
SEXAGESIMA.
“Cursed is the ground for thy sake.”
Yet earth was very good in days of old,
And earth is lovely still:
Still for the sacred flock she spreads the fold,
For Sion rears the hill.
And earth is lovely still:
Still for the sacred flock she spreads the fold,
For Sion rears the hill.
Mother she is, and cradle of our race,
A depth where treasures lie,
The broad foundation of a holy place,
Man's step to scale the sky.
A depth where treasures lie,
The broad foundation of a holy place,
Man's step to scale the sky.
She spreads the harvest-field which Angels reap,
And lo! the crop is white;
She spreads God's Acre where the happy sleep
All night that is not night.
And lo! the crop is white;
She spreads God's Acre where the happy sleep
All night that is not night.
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Earth may not pass till heaven shall pass away,
Nor heaven may be renewed
Except with earth: and once more in that day
Earth shall be very good.
Nor heaven may be renewed
Except with earth: and once more in that day
Earth shall be very good.
[That Eden of earth's sunrise cannot vie]
That Eden of earth's sunrise cannot vie
With Paradise beyond her sunset sky
Hidden on high.
With Paradise beyond her sunset sky
Hidden on high.
Four rivers watered Eden in her bliss,
But Paradise hath One which perfect is
In sweetnesses.
But Paradise hath One which perfect is
In sweetnesses.
Eden had gold, but Paradise hath gold
Like unto glass of splendours manifold
Tongue hath not told.
Like unto glass of splendours manifold
Tongue hath not told.
Eden had sun and moon to make her bright;
But Paradise hath God and Lamb for light,
And hath no night.
But Paradise hath God and Lamb for light,
And hath no night.
Unspotted innocence was Eden's best;
Great Paradise shows God's fulfilled behest,
Triumph and rest.
Great Paradise shows God's fulfilled behest,
Triumph and rest.
Hail, Eve and Adam, source of death and shame!
New life has sprung from death, and Jesu's Name
Clothes you with fame.
New life has sprung from death, and Jesu's Name
Clothes you with fame.
Hail Adam, and hail Eve! your children rise
And call you blessed, in their glad surmise
Of Paradise.
And call you blessed, in their glad surmise
Of Paradise.
QUINQUAGESIMA.
Love is alone the worthy law of love:All other laws have presupposed a taint:
Love is the law from kindled saint to saint,
From lamb to lamb, from dove to answering dove.
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Harmonious by free will without constraint:
Love learns and teaches: love shall man acquaint
With all he lacks, which all his lack is love.
Because Love is the fountain, I discern
The stream as love: for what but love should flow
From fountain Love? not bitter from the sweet!
I ignorant, have I laid claim to know?
Oh, teach me, Love, such knowledge as is meet
For one to know who is fain to love and learn.
[Piteous my rhyme is]
Piteous my rhyme is
What while I muse of love and pain,
Of love misspent, of love in vain,
Of love that is not loved again:
And is this all then?
As long as time is,
Love loveth. Time is but a span,
The dalliance space of dying man:
And is this all immortals can?
The gain were small then.
What while I muse of love and pain,
Of love misspent, of love in vain,
Of love that is not loved again:
And is this all then?
As long as time is,
Love loveth. Time is but a span,
The dalliance space of dying man:
And is this all immortals can?
The gain were small then.
Love loves for ever,
And finds a sort of joy in pain,
And gives with nought to take again,
And loves too well to end in vain:
Is the gain small then?
Love laughs at “never,”
Outlives our life, exceeds the span
Appointed to mere mortal man:
All which love is and does and can
Is all in all then.
And finds a sort of joy in pain,
And gives with nought to take again,
And loves too well to end in vain:
Is the gain small then?
Love laughs at “never,”
Outlives our life, exceeds the span
Appointed to mere mortal man:
All which love is and does and can
Is all in all then.
ASH WEDNESDAY.
My God, my God, have mercy on my sin,
For it is great; and if I should begin
To tell it all, the day would be too small
To tell it in.
For it is great; and if I should begin
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To tell it in.
My God, Thou wilt have mercy on my sin
For Thy Love's sake: yea, if I should begin
To tell This all, the day would be too small
To tell it in.
For Thy Love's sake: yea, if I should begin
To tell This all, the day would be too small
To tell it in.
[Good Lord, today]
Good Lord, today
I scarce find breath to say:
Scourge, but receive me.
For stripes are hard to bear, but worse
Thy intolerable curse;
So do not leave me.
I scarce find breath to say:
Scourge, but receive me.
For stripes are hard to bear, but worse
Thy intolerable curse;
So do not leave me.
Good Lord, lean down
In pity, tho' Thou frown;
Smite, but retrieve me:
For so Thou hold me up to stand
And kiss Thy smiting hand,
It less will grieve me.
In pity, tho' Thou frown;
Smite, but retrieve me:
For so Thou hold me up to stand
And kiss Thy smiting hand,
It less will grieve me.
LENT.
It is good to be last not first,Pending the present distress;
It is good to hunger and thirst,
So it be for righteousness.
It is good to spend and be spent,
It is good to watch and to pray:
Life and Death make a goodly Lent
So it leads us to Easter Day.
EMBERTIDE.
I saw a Saint.—How canst thou tell that he
Thou sawest was a Saint?—
I saw one like to Christ so luminously
By patient deeds of love, his mortal taint
Seemed made his groundwork for humility.
Thou sawest was a Saint?—
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By patient deeds of love, his mortal taint
Seemed made his groundwork for humility.
And when he marked me downcast utterly
Where foul I sat and faint,
Then more than ever Christ-like kindled he;
And welcomed me as I had been a saint,
Tenderly stooping low to comfort me.
Where foul I sat and faint,
Then more than ever Christ-like kindled he;
And welcomed me as I had been a saint,
Tenderly stooping low to comfort me.
Christ bade him, “Do thou likewise.” Wherefore he
Waxed zealous to acquaint
His soul with sin and sorrow, if so be
He might retrieve some latent saint:—
“Lo, I, with the child God hath given to me!”
Waxed zealous to acquaint
His soul with sin and sorrow, if so be
He might retrieve some latent saint:—
“Lo, I, with the child God hath given to me!”
MID-LENT.
Is any grieved or tired? Yea, by God's Will:Surely God's Will alone is good and best:
O weary man, in weariness take rest,
O hungry man, by hunger feast thy fill.
Discern thy good beneath a mask of ill,
Or build of loneliness thy secret nest:
At noon take heart, being mindful of the west,
At night wake hope, for dawn advances still.
At night wake hope. Poor soul, in such sore need
Of wakening and of girding up anew,
Hast thou that hope which fainting doth pursue?
No saint but hath pursued and hath been faint;
Bid love wake hope, for both thy steps shall speed,
Still faint yet still pursuing, O thou saint.
PASSIONTIDE.
It is the greatness of Thy love, dear Lord, that we would celebrate
With sevenfold powers.
Our love at best is cold and poor, at best unseemly for Thy state,
This best of ours.
Creatures that die, we yet are such as Thine own hands deigned to create:
We frail as flowers,
We bitter bondslaves ransomed at a price incomparably great
To grace Heaven's bowers.
With sevenfold powers.
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This best of ours.
Creatures that die, we yet are such as Thine own hands deigned to create:
We frail as flowers,
We bitter bondslaves ransomed at a price incomparably great
To grace Heaven's bowers.
Thou callest: “Come at once”—and still Thou callest us: “Come late, tho' late”—
(The moments fly)—
“Come, every one that thirsteth, come”—“Come prove Me, knocking at My gate”—
(Some souls draw nigh!)—
“Come thou who waiting seekest Me”—“Come thou for whom I seek and wait”—
(Why will we die?)—
“Come and repent: come and amend: come joy the joys unsatiate”—
—(Christ passeth by . . .)—
Lord, pass not by—I come—and I—and I.
(The moments fly)—
“Come, every one that thirsteth, come”—“Come prove Me, knocking at My gate”—
(Some souls draw nigh!)—
“Come thou who waiting seekest Me”—“Come thou for whom I seek and wait”—
(Why will we die?)—
“Come and repent: come and amend: come joy the joys unsatiate”—
—(Christ passeth by . . .)—
Lord, pass not by—I come—and I—and I.
Amen.
PALM SUNDAY.
“He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.”
I lift mine eyes, and see
Thee, tender Lord, in pain upon the tree,
Athirst for my sake and athirst for me.
Thee, tender Lord, in pain upon the tree,
Athirst for my sake and athirst for me.
“Yea, look upon Me there,
Compassed with thorns and bleeding everywhere,
For thy sake bearing all, and glad to bear.”
Compassed with thorns and bleeding everywhere,
For thy sake bearing all, and glad to bear.”
I lift my heart to pray:
Thou Who didst love me all that darkened day,
Wilt Thou not love me to the end alway?
Thou Who didst love me all that darkened day,
Wilt Thou not love me to the end alway?
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“Yea, thee My wandering sheep,
Yea, thee My scarlet sinner slow to weep,
Come to Me, I will love thee and will keep.”
Yea, thee My scarlet sinner slow to weep,
Come to Me, I will love thee and will keep.”
Yet am I racked with fear:
Behold the unending outer darkness drear,
Behold the gulf unbridgeable and near!
Behold the unending outer darkness drear,
Behold the gulf unbridgeable and near!
“Nay, fix thy heart, thine eyes,
Thy hope upon My boundless sacrifice:
Will I lose lightly one so dear-bought prize?”
Thy hope upon My boundless sacrifice:
Will I lose lightly one so dear-bought prize?”
Ah, Lord; it is not Thou,
Thou that wilt fail; yet woe is me, for how
Shall I endure who half am failing now?
Thou that wilt fail; yet woe is me, for how
Shall I endure who half am failing now?
“Nay, weld thy resolute will
To Mine: glance not aside for good or ill:
I love thee; trust Me still and love Me still.”
To Mine: glance not aside for good or ill:
I love thee; trust Me still and love Me still.”
Yet Thou Thyself hast said,
When Thou shalt sift the living from the dead
Some must depart shamed and uncomforted.
When Thou shalt sift the living from the dead
Some must depart shamed and uncomforted.
“Judge not before that day:
Trust Me with all thy heart, even tho' I slay:
Trust Me in love, trust on, love on, and pray.”
Trust Me with all thy heart, even tho' I slay:
Trust Me in love, trust on, love on, and pray.”
MONDAY IN HOLY WEEK.
“The Voice of my Beloved.”
Once I ached for thy dear sake:
Wilt thou cause Me now to ache?
Once I bled for thee in pain:
Wilt thou rend My Heart again?
Crown of thorns and shameful tree,
Bitter death I bore for thee,
Bore My Cross to carry thee,
And wilt thou have nought of Me?
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TUESDAY IN HOLY WEEK.
By Thy long-drawn anguish to atone,
Jesus Christ, show mercy on Thine own:
Jesus Christ, show mercy and atone
Not for other sake except Thine own.
Jesus Christ, show mercy on Thine own:
Jesus Christ, show mercy and atone
Not for other sake except Thine own.
Thou Who thirsting on the Cross didst see
All mankind and all I love and me,
Still from Heaven look down in love and see
All mankind and all I love and me.
All mankind and all I love and me,
Still from Heaven look down in love and see
All mankind and all I love and me.
WEDNESDAY IN HOLY WEEK.
Man's life is death. Yet Christ endured to live,
Preaching and teaching, toiling to and fro,
Few men accepting what He yearned to give,
Few men with eyes to know
His Face, that Face of Love He stooped to show.
Preaching and teaching, toiling to and fro,
Few men accepting what He yearned to give,
Few men with eyes to know
His Face, that Face of Love He stooped to show.
Man's death is life. For Christ endured to die
In slow unuttered weariness of pain,
A curse and an astonishment, passed by,
Pointed at, mocked again
By men for whom He shed His Blood—in vain?
In slow unuttered weariness of pain,
A curse and an astonishment, passed by,
Pointed at, mocked again
By men for whom He shed His Blood—in vain?
MAUNDY THURSDAY.
“And the Vine said . . . Should I leave my wine, which cheereth God and
man, and go to be promoted over the trees?”
The great Vine left its glory to reign as Forest King.
“Nay,” quoth the lofty forest trees, “we will not have this thing;
We will not have this supple one enring us with its ring.
Lo, from immemorial time our might towers shadowing:
Not we were born to curve and droop, not we to climb and cling:
We buffet back the buffeting wind, tough to its buffeting:
We screen great beasts, the wild fowl build in our heads and sing,
Every bird of every feather from off our tops takes wing:
I a king, and thou a king, and what king shall be our king?”
“Nay,” quoth the lofty forest trees, “we will not have this thing;
We will not have this supple one enring us with its ring.
Lo, from immemorial time our might towers shadowing:
Not we were born to curve and droop, not we to climb and cling:
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We screen great beasts, the wild fowl build in our heads and sing,
Every bird of every feather from off our tops takes wing:
I a king, and thou a king, and what king shall be our king?”
Nevertheless the great Vine stooped to be the Forest King,
While the forest swayed and murmured like seas that are tempesting:
Stooped and drooped with thousand tendrils in thirsty languishing;
Bowed to earth and lay on earth for earth's replenishing;
Put off sweetness, tasted bitterness, endured time's fashioning;
Put off life and put on death: and lo! it was all to bring
All its fellows down to a death which hath lost the sting,
All its fellows up to a life in endless triumphing,—
I a king, and thou a king, and this King to be our King.
While the forest swayed and murmured like seas that are tempesting:
Stooped and drooped with thousand tendrils in thirsty languishing;
Bowed to earth and lay on earth for earth's replenishing;
Put off sweetness, tasted bitterness, endured time's fashioning;
Put off life and put on death: and lo! it was all to bring
All its fellows down to a death which hath lost the sting,
All its fellows up to a life in endless triumphing,—
I a king, and thou a king, and this King to be our King.
GOOD FRIDAY MORNING.
“Bearing His Cross.”
Up Thy Hill of Sorrows
Thou all alone,
Jesus, man's Redeemer,
Climbing to a Throne:
Thro' the world triumphant,
Thro' the Church in pain,
Which think to look upon Thee
No more again.
Thou all alone,
Jesus, man's Redeemer,
Climbing to a Throne:
Thro' the world triumphant,
Thro' the Church in pain,
Which think to look upon Thee
No more again.
Upon my hill of sorrows
I, Lord, with Thee,
Cheered, upheld, yea, carried,
If a need should be:
Cheered, upheld, yea, carried,
Never left alone,
Carried in Thy heart of hearts
To a throne.
I, Lord, with Thee,
Cheered, upheld, yea, carried,
If a need should be:
Cheered, upheld, yea, carried,
Never left alone,
Carried in Thy heart of hearts
To a throne.
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GOOD FRIDAY.
Lord Jesus Christ, grown faint upon the Cross,A sorrow beyond sorrow in Thy look,
The unutterable craving for my soul;
Thy love of me sufficed
To load upon Thee and make good my loss
In face of darkened heaven and earth that shook:—
In face of earth and heaven, take Thou my whole
Heart, O Lord Jesus Christ.
GOOD FRIDAY EVENING.
“Bring forth the Spear.”
No Cherub's heart or hand for us might ache,
No Seraph's heart of fire had half sufficed:
Thine own were pierced and broken for our sake,
O Jesus Christ.
No Seraph's heart of fire had half sufficed:
Thine own were pierced and broken for our sake,
O Jesus Christ.
Therefore we love Thee with our faint good-will,
We crave to love Thee not as heretofore,
To love Thee much, to love Thee more, and still
More and yet more.
We crave to love Thee not as heretofore,
To love Thee much, to love Thee more, and still
More and yet more.
“A bundle of myrrh is my Well-beloved unto me.”
Thy Cross cruciferous doth flower in all
And every cross, dear Lord, assigned to us:
Ours lowly-statured crosses; Thine how tall,
Thy Cross cruciferous.
And every cross, dear Lord, assigned to us:
Ours lowly-statured crosses; Thine how tall,
Thy Cross cruciferous.
Thy Cross alone life-giving, glorious:
For love of Thine, souls love their own when small,
Easy and light, or great and ponderous.
For love of Thine, souls love their own when small,
Easy and light, or great and ponderous.
Since deep calls deep, Lord, hearken when we call;
When cross calls Cross racking and emulous:—
Remember us with him who shared Thy gall,
Thy Cross cruciferous.
When cross calls Cross racking and emulous:—
Remember us with him who shared Thy gall,
Thy Cross cruciferous.
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EASTER EVEN.
The tempest over and gone, the calm begun,
Lo, “it is finished” and the Strong Man sleeps:
All stars keep vigil watching for the sun,
The moon her vigil keeps.
Lo, “it is finished” and the Strong Man sleeps:
All stars keep vigil watching for the sun,
The moon her vigil keeps.
A garden full of silence and of dew
Beside a virgin cave and entrance stone:
Surely a garden full of Angels too,
Wondering, on watch, alone.
Beside a virgin cave and entrance stone:
Surely a garden full of Angels too,
Wondering, on watch, alone.
They who cry “Holy, Holy, Holy,” still
Veiling their faces round God's Throne above,
May well keep vigil on this heavenly hill
And cry their cry of love,
Veiling their faces round God's Throne above,
May well keep vigil on this heavenly hill
And cry their cry of love,
Adoring God in His new mystery
Of Love more deep than hell, more strong than death;
Until the day break and the shadows flee,
The Shaking and the Breath.
Of Love more deep than hell, more strong than death;
Until the day break and the shadows flee,
The Shaking and the Breath.
Our Church Palms are budding willow twigs.
While Christ lay dead the widowed worldMore willow green for hope undone:
Till, when bright Easter dews impearled
The chilly burial earth,
All north and south, all east and west,
Flushed rosy in the arising sun;
Hope laughed, and Faith resumed her rest,
And Love remembered mirth.
EASTER DAY.
Words cannot utter
Christ His returning:
Mankind, keep jubilee,
Strip off your mourning,
Crown you with garlands,
Set your lamps burning.
Christ His returning:
Mankind, keep jubilee,
Strip off your mourning,
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Set your lamps burning.
Speech is left speechless;
Set you to singing,
Fling your hearts open wide,
Set your bells ringing:
Christ the Chief Reaper
Comes, His sheaf bringing.
Set you to singing,
Fling your hearts open wide,
Set your bells ringing:
Christ the Chief Reaper
Comes, His sheaf bringing.
Earth wakes her song-birds,
Puts on her flowers,
Leads out her lambkins,
Builds up her bowers:
This is man's spousal day,
Christ's day and ours.
Puts on her flowers,
Leads out her lambkins,
Builds up her bowers:
This is man's spousal day,
Christ's day and ours.
EASTER MONDAY.
Out in the rain a world is growing green,
On half the trees quick buds are seen
Where glued-up buds have been.
Out in the rain God's Acre stretches green,
Its harvest quick tho' still unseen:
For there the Life hath been.
On half the trees quick buds are seen
Where glued-up buds have been.
Out in the rain God's Acre stretches green,
Its harvest quick tho' still unseen:
For there the Life hath been.
If Christ hath died His brethren well may die,
Sing in the gate of death, lay by
This life without a sigh:
For Christ hath died and good it is to die;
To sleep whenso He lays us by,
Then wake without a sigh.
Sing in the gate of death, lay by
This life without a sigh:
For Christ hath died and good it is to die;
To sleep whenso He lays us by,
Then wake without a sigh.
Yea, Christ hath died, yea, Christ is risen again:
Wherefore both life and death grow plain
To us who wax and wane;
For Christ Who rose shall die no more again:
Amen: till He makes all things plain
Let us wax on and wane.
Wherefore both life and death grow plain
To us who wax and wane;
For Christ Who rose shall die no more again:
Amen: till He makes all things plain
Let us wax on and wane.
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EASTER TUESDAY.
“Together with my dead body shall they arise.”
Shall my dead body arise? then amen and yea
On track of a home beyond the uttermost skies
Together with my dead body shall they.
Shall my dead body arise? then amen and yea
On track of a home beyond the uttermost skies
Together with my dead body shall they.
We know the way: thank God Who hath showed us the way!
Jesus Christ our Way to beautiful Paradise,
Jesus Christ the Same for ever, the Same today.
Jesus Christ our Way to beautiful Paradise,
Jesus Christ the Same for ever, the Same today.
Five Virgins replenish with oil their lamps, being wise,
Five Virgins awaiting the Bridegroom watch and pray:
And if I one day spring from my grave to the prize,
Together with my dead body shall they.
Five Virgins awaiting the Bridegroom watch and pray:
And if I one day spring from my grave to the prize,
Together with my dead body shall they.
ROGATIONTIDE.
Who scatters tares shall reap no wheat,
But go hungry while others eat.
But go hungry while others eat.
Who sows the wind shall not reap grain;
The sown wind whirleth back again.
The sown wind whirleth back again.
What God opens must open be,
Tho' man pile the sand of the sea.
Tho' man pile the sand of the sea.
What God shuts is opened no more,
Tho' man weary himself to find the door.
Tho' man weary himself to find the door.
ASCENSION EVE.
O Lord Almighty, Who hast formed us weak,With us whom Thou hast formed deal fatherly;
Be found of us whom Thou has deigned to seek,
Be found that we the more may seek for Thee;
Lord, speak and grant us ears to hear Thee speak;
Lord, come to us and grant us eyes to see;
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Lord, Thou art Love, fill us with charity.
O Thou the Life of living and of dead,
Who givest more the more Thyself hast given,
Suffice us as Thy saints Thou hast sufficed;
That beautified, replenished, comforted,
Still gazing off from earth and up at heaven
We may pursue Thy steps, Lord Jesus Christ.
ASCENSION DAY.
“A Cloud received Him out of their sight.”
When Christ went up to Heaven the Apostles stayed
Gazing at Heaven with souls and wills on fire,
Their hearts on flight along the track He made,
Winged by desire.
Gazing at Heaven with souls and wills on fire,
Their hearts on flight along the track He made,
Winged by desire.
Their silence spake: “Lord, why not follow Thee?
Home is not home without Thy Blessed Face,
Life is not life. Remember, Lord, and see,
Look back, embrace.
Home is not home without Thy Blessed Face,
Life is not life. Remember, Lord, and see,
Look back, embrace.
“Earth is one desert waste of banishment,
Life is one long-drawn anguish of decay.
Where Thou wert wont to go we also went:
Why not today?”
Life is one long-drawn anguish of decay.
Where Thou wert wont to go we also went:
Why not today?”
Nevertheless a cloud cut off their gaze:
They tarry to build up Jerusalem,
Watching for Him, while thro' the appointed days
He watches them.
They tarry to build up Jerusalem,
Watching for Him, while thro' the appointed days
He watches them.
They do His Will, and doing it rejoice,
Patiently glad to spend and to be spent:
Still He speaks to them, still they hear His Voice
And are content.
Patiently glad to spend and to be spent:
Still He speaks to them, still they hear His Voice
And are content.
For as a cloud received Him from their sight,
So with a cloud will He return ere long:
Therefore they stand on guard by day, by night,
Strenuous and strong.
So with a cloud will He return ere long:
Therefore they stand on guard by day, by night,
Strenuous and strong.
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They do, they dare, they beyond seven times seven
Forgive, they cry God's mighty word aloud:
Yet sometimes haply lift tired eyes to Heaven—
“Is that His cloud?”
Forgive, they cry God's mighty word aloud:
Yet sometimes haply lift tired eyes to Heaven—
“Is that His cloud?”
WHITSUN EVE.
“As many as I love.”—Ah, Lord, Who lovest all,
If thus it is with Thee why sit remote above,
Beholding from afar, stumbling and marred and small,
So many Thou dost love?
If thus it is with Thee why sit remote above,
Beholding from afar, stumbling and marred and small,
So many Thou dost love?
Whom sin and sorrow make their worn reluctant thrall;
Who fain would flee away but lack the wings of dove;
Who long for love and rest; who look to Thee, and call
To Thee for rest and love.
Who fain would flee away but lack the wings of dove;
Who long for love and rest; who look to Thee, and call
To Thee for rest and love.
WHITSUN DAY.
“When the Day of Pentecost was fully come.”
At sound as of rushing wind, and sight as of fire,
Lo! flesh and blood made spirit and fiery flame,
Ambassadors in Christ's and the Father's Name,
To woo back a world's desire.
Lo! flesh and blood made spirit and fiery flame,
Ambassadors in Christ's and the Father's Name,
To woo back a world's desire.
These men chose death for their life and shame for their boast,
For fear courage, for doubt intuition of faith,
Chose love that is strong as death and stronger than death
In the power of the Holy Ghost.
For fear courage, for doubt intuition of faith,
Chose love that is strong as death and stronger than death
In the power of the Holy Ghost.
WHITSUN MONDAY.
“A pure River of Water of Life.”
We know not a voice of that River,
If vocal or silent it be,
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows to no sea.
If vocal or silent it be,
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows to no sea.
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More deep than the seas is that River,
More full than their manifold tides,
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows and abides.
More full than their manifold tides,
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows and abides.
Pure gold is the bed of that River
(The gold of that land is the best),
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows on at rest.
(The gold of that land is the best),
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows on at rest.
Oh goodly the banks of that River,
Oh goodly the fruits that they bear,
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows and is fair.
Oh goodly the fruits that they bear,
Where for ever and ever and ever
It flows and is fair.
For lo! on each bank of that River
The Tree of Life life-giving grows,
Where for ever and ever and ever
The Pure River flows.
The Tree of Life life-giving grows,
Where for ever and ever and ever
The Pure River flows.
WHITSUN TUESDAY.
Lord Jesus Christ, our Wisdom and our Rest,Who wisely dost reveal and wisely hide,
Grant us such grace in wisdom to abide
According to Thy Will whose Will is best.
Contented with Thine uttermost behest,
Too sweet for envy and too high for pride;
All simple-souled, dove-hearted and dove-eyed,
Soft-voiced, and satisfied in humble nest.
Wondering at the bounty of Thy Love
Which gives us wings of silver and of gold;
Wings folded close, yet ready to unfold
When Thou shalt say, “Winter is past and gone:”
When Thou shalt say, “Spouse, sister, love and dove,
Come hither, sit with Me upon My Throne.”
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TRINITY SUNDAY.
My God, Thyself being Love Thy heart is love,And love Thy Will and love Thy Word to us,
Whether Thou show us depths calamitous
Or heights and flights of rapturous peace above.
O Christ the Lamb, O Holy Ghost the Dove,
Reveal the Almighty Father unto us;
That we may tread Thy courts felicitous,
Loving Who loves us, for our God is Love.
Lo, if our God be Love thro' heaven's long day,
Love is He thro' our mortal pilgrimage,
Love was He thro' all aeons that are told.
We change, but Thou remainest; for Thine age
Is, Was, and Is to come, nor new nor old;
We change, but Thou remainest; yea and yea!
CONVERSION OF ST. PAUL.
O blessed Paul elect to grace,Arise and wash away thy sin,
Anoint thy head and wash thy face,
Thy gracious course begin.
To start thee on thy outrunning race
Christ shows the splendour of His Face:
What will that Face of splendour be
When at the goal He welcomes thee?
[In weariness and painfulness St. Paul]
In weariness and painfulness St. Paul
Served God and pleased Him: after-saints no less
Can wait on and can please Him, one and all
In weariness and painfulness,
Served God and pleased Him: after-saints no less
Can wait on and can please Him, one and all
In weariness and painfulness,
By faith and hope triumphant thro' distress:
Not with the rankling service of a thrall;
But even as loving children trust and bless,
Weep and rejoice, answering their Father's call,
Work with tired hands, and forward upward press
On sore tired feet still rising when they fall,
In weariness and painfulness.
Not with the rankling service of a thrall;
But even as loving children trust and bless,
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Work with tired hands, and forward upward press
On sore tired feet still rising when they fall,
In weariness and painfulness.
VIGIL OF THE PRESENTATION.
Long and dark the nights, dim and short the days,Mounting weary heights on our weary ways,
Thee our God we praise.
Scaling heavenly heights by unearthly ways,
Thee our God we praise all our nights and days,
Thee our God we praise.
FEAST OF THE PRESENTATION.
O Firstfruits of our grain,
Infant and Lamb appointed to be slain,
A Virgin and two doves were all Thy train,
With one old man for state,
When Thou didst enter first Thy Father's gate.
Infant and Lamb appointed to be slain,
A Virgin and two doves were all Thy train,
With one old man for state,
When Thou didst enter first Thy Father's gate.
Since then Thy train hath been
Freeman and bondman, bishop, king and queen,
With flaming candles and with garlands green:
Oh happy all who wait
One day or thousand days around Thy gate.
Freeman and bondman, bishop, king and queen,
With flaming candles and with garlands green:
Oh happy all who wait
One day or thousand days around Thy gate.
And these have offered Thee,
Beside their hearts, great stores for charity,
Gold, frankincense and myrrh; if such may be
For savour or for state
Within the threshold of Thy golden gate.
Beside their hearts, great stores for charity,
Gold, frankincense and myrrh; if such may be
For savour or for state
Within the threshold of Thy golden gate.
Then snowdrops and my heart
I'll bring, to find those blacker than Thou art:
Yet, loving Lord, accept us in good part;
And give me grace to wait
A bruised reed bowed low before Thy gate.
I'll bring, to find those blacker than Thou art:
Yet, loving Lord, accept us in good part;
And give me grace to wait
A bruised reed bowed low before Thy gate.
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THE PURIFICATION OF ST. MARY THE VIRGIN.
Purity born of a Maid:Was such a Virgin defiled?
Nay, by no shade of a shade.
She offered her gift of pure love,
A dove with a fair fellow-dove.
She offered her Innocent Child
The Essence and Author of Love;
The Lamb that indwelt by the Dove
Was spotless and holy and mild;
More pure than all other,
More pure than His Mother,
Her God and Redeemer and Child.
VIGIL OF THE ANNUNCIATION.
All weareth, all wasteth,
All flitteth, all hasteth,
All of flesh and time:—
Sound, sweet heavenly chime,
Ring in the unutterable eternal prime.
All flitteth, all hasteth,
All of flesh and time:—
Sound, sweet heavenly chime,
Ring in the unutterable eternal prime.
Man hopeth, man feareth,
Man droopeth:—Christ cheereth,
Compassing release,
Comforting with peace,
Promising rest where strife and anguish cease.
Man droopeth:—Christ cheereth,
Compassing release,
Comforting with peace,
Promising rest where strife and anguish cease.
Saints waking, saints sleeping,
Rest well in safe keeping;
Well they rest today
While they watch and pray,—
But their tomorrow's rest what tongue shall say?
Rest well in safe keeping;
Well they rest today
While they watch and pray,—
But their tomorrow's rest what tongue shall say?
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FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION.
Whereto shall we liken this Blessed Mary Virgin,
Fruitful shoot from Jesse's root graciously emerging?
Lily we might call her, but Christ alone is white;
Rose delicious, but that Jesus is the one Delight;
Flower of women, but her Firstborn is mankind's one flower:
Fruitful shoot from Jesse's root graciously emerging?
Lily we might call her, but Christ alone is white;
Rose delicious, but that Jesus is the one Delight;
Flower of women, but her Firstborn is mankind's one flower:
He the Sun lights up all moons thro' their radiant hour.
“Blessed among women, highly favoured,” thus
Glorious Gabriel hailed her, teaching words to us:
Whom devoutly copying we too cry “All hail!”
Echoing on the music of glorious Gabriel.
“Blessed among women, highly favoured,” thus
Glorious Gabriel hailed her, teaching words to us:
Whom devoutly copying we too cry “All hail!”
Echoing on the music of glorious Gabriel.
[Herself a rose, who bore the Rose]
Herself a rose, who bore the Rose,
She bore the Rose and felt its thorn.
All Loveliness new-born
Took on her bosom its repose,
And slept and woke there night and morn.
She bore the Rose and felt its thorn.
All Loveliness new-born
Took on her bosom its repose,
And slept and woke there night and morn.
Lily herself, she bore the one
Fair Lily; sweeter, whiter, far
Than she or others are:
The Sun of Righteousness her Son,
She was His morning star.
Fair Lily; sweeter, whiter, far
Than she or others are:
The Sun of Righteousness her Son,
She was His morning star.
She gracious, He essential Grace,
He was the Fountain, she the rill:
Her goodness to fulfil
And gladness, with proportioned pace
He led her steps thro' good and ill.
He was the Fountain, she the rill:
Her goodness to fulfil
And gladness, with proportioned pace
He led her steps thro' good and ill.
Christ's mirror she of grace and love,
Of beauty and of life and death:
By hope and love and faith
Transfigured to His Likeness, “Dove,
Spouse, Sister, Mother,” Jesus saith.
Of beauty and of life and death:
By hope and love and faith
Transfigured to His Likeness, “Dove,
Spouse, Sister, Mother,” Jesus saith.
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ST. MARK.
Once like a broken bow Mark sprang aside:
Yet grace recalled him to a worthier course,
To feeble hands and knees increasing force,
Till God was magnified.
Yet grace recalled him to a worthier course,
To feeble hands and knees increasing force,
Till God was magnified.
And now a strong Evangelist, St. Mark
Hath for his sign a Lion in his strength;
And thro' the stormy water's breadth and length
He helps to steer God's Ark.
Hath for his sign a Lion in his strength;
And thro' the stormy water's breadth and length
He helps to steer God's Ark.
Thus calls he sinners to be penitents,
He kindles penitents to high desire,
He mounts before them to the sphere of saints,
And bids them come up higher.
He kindles penitents to high desire,
He mounts before them to the sphere of saints,
And bids them come up higher.
ST. BARNABAS.
“Now when we had discovered Cyprus, we left it on the left hand.”
—Acts xxi. 3.
—Acts xxi. 3.
“We sailed under Cyprus, because the winds were contrary.”
—Acts xxvii. 4.
—Acts xxvii. 4.
St. Barnabas, with John his sister's son,
Set sail for Cyprus; leaving in their wake
That chosen Vessel, who for Jesus' sake
Proclaimed the Gentiles and the Jews at one.
Divided while united, each must run
His mighty course not hell should overtake;
And pressing toward the mark must own the ache
Of love, and sigh for heaven not yet begun.
For saints in life-long exile yearn to touch
Warm human hands, and commune face to face;
But these we know not ever met again:
Yet once St. Paul at distance overmuch
Just sighted Cyprus; and once more in vain
Neared it and passed;—not there his landing-place.
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VIGIL OF ST. PETER.
O Jesu, gone so far apart
Only my heart can follow Thee,
That look which pierced St. Peter's heart
Turn now on me.
Only my heart can follow Thee,
That look which pierced St. Peter's heart
Turn now on me.
Thou Who dost search me thro' and thro'
And mark the crooked ways I went,
Look on me, Lord, and make me too
Thy penitent.
And mark the crooked ways I went,
Look on me, Lord, and make me too
Thy penitent.
ST. PETER.
“Launch out into the deep,” Christ spake of oldTo Peter: and he launched into the deep;
Strengthened should tempest wake which lay asleep,
Strengthened to suffer heat or suffer cold.
Thus, in Christ's Prescience: patient to behold
A fall, a rise, a scaling Heaven's high steep;
Prescience of Love, which deigned to overleap
The mire of human errors manifold.
Lord, Lover of Thy Peter, and of him
Beloved with craving of a humbled heart
Which eighteen hundred years have satisfied;
Hath he his throne among Thy Seraphim
Who love? or sits he on a throne apart,
Unique, near Thee, to love Thee human-eyed?
[St. Peter once: “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?”—]
St. Peter once: “Lord, dost Thou wash my feet?”—Much more I say: Lord, dost Thou stand and knock
At my closed heart more rugged than a rock,
Bolted and barred, for Thy soft touch unmeet,
Nor garnished nor in any wise made sweet?
Owls roost within and dancing satyrs mock.
Lord, I have heard the crowing of the cock
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Yet still I hear Thee knocking, still I hear:
“Open to Me, look on Me eye to eye,
That I may wring thy heart and make it whole;
And teach thee love because I hold thee dear,
And sup with thee in gladness soul with soul,
And sup with thee in glory by and by.”
[I followed Thee, my God, I followed Thee]
I followed Thee, my God, I followed Thee
To see the end:
I turned back flying from Gethsemane,
Turned back on flying steps to see
Thy Face, my God, my Friend.
To see the end:
I turned back flying from Gethsemane,
Turned back on flying steps to see
Thy Face, my God, my Friend.
Even fleeing from Thee my heart clave to Thee:
I turned perforce
Constrained, yea chained by love which maketh free;
I turned perforce, and silently
Followed along Thy course.
I turned perforce
Constrained, yea chained by love which maketh free;
I turned perforce, and silently
Followed along Thy course.
Lord, didst Thou know that I was following Thee?
I weak and small
Yet Thy true lover, mean tho' I must be,
Sinning and sorrowing—didst Thou see?
O Lord, Thou sawest all.
I weak and small
Yet Thy true lover, mean tho' I must be,
Sinning and sorrowing—didst Thou see?
O Lord, Thou sawest all.
I thought I had been strong to die for Thee;
I disbelieved
Thy word of warning spoken patiently:
My heart cried, “That be far from me,”
Till Thy bruised heart I grieved.
I disbelieved
Thy word of warning spoken patiently:
My heart cried, “That be far from me,”
Till Thy bruised heart I grieved.
Once I had urged: “Lord, this be far from Thee:”—
Rebel to light,
It needed first that Thou shouldst die for me
Or ever I could plumb and see
Love's lovely depth and height.
Rebel to light,
It needed first that Thou shouldst die for me
Or ever I could plumb and see
Love's lovely depth and height.
Alas that I should trust myself, not Thee;
Not trust Thy word:
I faithless slumberer in Gethsemane,
Blinded and rash; who instantly
Put trust, but in a sword.
Not trust Thy word:
I faithless slumberer in Gethsemane,
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Put trust, but in a sword.
Ah Lord, if even at the last in Thee
I had put faith,
I might even at the last have counselled me,
And not have heaped up cruelty
To sting Thee in Thy death.
I had put faith,
I might even at the last have counselled me,
And not have heaped up cruelty
To sting Thee in Thy death.
Alas for me, who bore to think on Thee
And yet to lie:
While Thou, O Lord, didst bear to look on me
Goaded by fear to blasphemy,
And break my heart and die.
And yet to lie:
While Thou, O Lord, didst bear to look on me
Goaded by fear to blasphemy,
And break my heart and die.
No balm I find in Gilead, yet in Thee
Nailed to Thy palm
I find a balm that wrings and comforts me:
Balm wrung from Thee by agony,
My balm, mine only balm.
Nailed to Thy palm
I find a balm that wrings and comforts me:
Balm wrung from Thee by agony,
My balm, mine only balm.
Oh blessed John who standeth close to Thee,
With Magdalene,
And Thine own Mother praying silently,
Yea, blessed above women she,
Now blessed even as then.
With Magdalene,
And Thine own Mother praying silently,
Yea, blessed above women she,
Now blessed even as then.
And blessed the scorned thief who hangs by Thee,
Whose thirsting mouth
Thirsts for Thee more than water, whose eyes see,
Whose lips confess in ecstasy
Nor feel their parching drouth.
Whose thirsting mouth
Thirsts for Thee more than water, whose eyes see,
Whose lips confess in ecstasy
Nor feel their parching drouth.
Like as the hart the water-brooks I Thee
Desire, my hands
I stretch to Thee; O kind Lord, pity me:
Lord, I have wept, wept bitterly,
I driest of dry lands.
Desire, my hands
I stretch to Thee; O kind Lord, pity me:
Lord, I have wept, wept bitterly,
I driest of dry lands.
Lord, I am standing far far off from Thee;
Yet is my heart
Hanging with Thee upon the accursed tree;
The nails, the thorns, pierce Thee and me:
My God, I claim my part.
Yet is my heart
Hanging with Thee upon the accursed tree;
The nails, the thorns, pierce Thee and me:
My God, I claim my part.
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Scarce in Thy throne and kingdom; yet with Thee
In shame, in loss,
In Thy forsaking, in Thine agony:
Love crucified, behold even me,
Me also bear Thy cross.
In shame, in loss,
In Thy forsaking, in Thine agony:
Love crucified, behold even me,
Me also bear Thy cross.
VIGIL OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
Lord, to Thine own grant watchful hearts and eyes;Hearts strung to prayer, awake while eyelids sleep;
Eyes patient till the end to watch and weep.
So will sleep nourish power to wake and rise
With Virgins who keep vigil and are wise,
To sow among all sowers who shall reap,
From out man's deep to call Thy vaster deep,
And tread the uphill track to Paradise.
Sweet souls! so patient that they make no moan,
So calm on journey that they seem at rest,
So rapt in prayer that half they dwell in heaven
Thankful for all withheld and all things given;
So lit by love that Christ shines manifest
Transfiguring their aspects to His own.
ST. BARTHOLOMEW.
He bore an agony whereof the name
Hath turned his fellows pale:
But what if God should call us to the same,
Should call, and we should fail?
Hath turned his fellows pale:
But what if God should call us to the same,
Should call, and we should fail?
Nor earth nor sea could swallow up our shame,
Nor darkness draw a veil:
For he endured that agony whose name
Hath made his fellows quail.
Nor darkness draw a veil:
For he endured that agony whose name
Hath made his fellows quail.
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ST. MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS.
“Ye that excel in strength.”
Service and strength, God's Angels and Archangels;
His Seraphs fires, and lamps His Cherubim:
Glory to God from highest and from lowest,
Glory to God in everlasting hymn
From all His creatures.
His Seraphs fires, and lamps His Cherubim:
Glory to God from highest and from lowest,
Glory to God in everlasting hymn
From all His creatures.
Princes that serve, and Powers that work His pleasure,
Heights that soar to'ard Him, Depths that sink to'ard Him;
Flames fire out-flaming, chill beside His Essence;
Insight all-probing, save where scant and dim
To'ard its Creator.
Heights that soar to'ard Him, Depths that sink to'ard Him;
Flames fire out-flaming, chill beside His Essence;
Insight all-probing, save where scant and dim
To'ard its Creator.
Sacred and free exultant in God's pleasure,
His Will their solace, thus they wait on Him;
And shout their shout of ecstasy eternal,
And trim their splendours that they burn not dim
To'ard their Creator.
His Will their solace, thus they wait on Him;
And shout their shout of ecstasy eternal,
And trim their splendours that they burn not dim
To'ard their Creator.
Wherefore with Angels, wherefore with Archangels,
With lofty Cherubs, loftier Seraphim,
We laud and magnify our God Almighty,
And veil our faces rendering love to Him
With all His creatures.
With lofty Cherubs, loftier Seraphim,
We laud and magnify our God Almighty,
And veil our faces rendering love to Him
With all His creatures.
VIGIL OF ALL SAINTS.
Up, my drowsing eyes!
Up, my sinking heart!
Up to Jesus Christ arise!
Claim your part
In all raptures of the skies.
Up, my sinking heart!
Up to Jesus Christ arise!
Claim your part
In all raptures of the skies.
Yet a little while,
Yet a little way,
Saints shall reap and rest and smile
All the day.
Up! let's trudge another mile.
Yet a little way,
Saints shall reap and rest and smile
All the day.
Up! let's trudge another mile.
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ALL SAINTS.
As grains of sand, as stars, as drops of dew,Numbered and treasured by the Almighty Hand,
The Saints triumphant throng that holy land
Where all things and Jerusalem are new.
We know not half they sing or half they do,
But this we know, they rest and understand;
While like a conflagration freshly fanned
Their love glows upward, outward, thro' and thro'.
Lo! like a stream of incense launched on flame
Fresh Saints stream up from death to life above,
To shine among those others and rejoice:
What matters tribulation whence they came?
All love and only love can find a voice
Where God makes glad His Saints, for God is Love.
ALL SAINTS: MARTYRS.
Once slain for Him Who first was slain for them,Now made alive in Him for evermore,
All luminous and lovely in their gore
With no more buffeting winds or tides to stem
The Martyrs look for New Jerusalem;
And cry “How long?” remembering all they bore,
“How long?” with heart and eyes sent on before
Toward consummated throne and diadem.
“How long?” White robes are given to their desire;
“How long?” deep rest that is and is to be;
With a great promise of the oncoming host,
Loves to their love and fires to flank their fire:
So rest they, worshipping incessantly
One God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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“I gave a sweet smell.”
Saints are like roses when they flush rarest,Saints are like lilies when they bloom fairest,
Saints are like violets sweetest of their kind:
Bear in mind
This today. Then tomorrow:
All like roses rarer than the rarest,
All like lilies fairer than the fairest,
All like violets sweeter than we know.
Be it so.
Tomorrow blots out sorrow.
[Hark! the Alleluias of the great salvation]
Hark! the Alleluias of the great salvation
Still beginning, never ending, still begin,
The thunder of an endless adoration:
Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation
Which have kept the truth may enter in.
Still beginning, never ending, still begin,
The thunder of an endless adoration:
Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation
Which have kept the truth may enter in.
Roll ye back, ye pearls, on your twelvefold station:
No more deaths to die, no more fights to win!
Lift your heads, ye gates, that the righteous nation
Led by the Great Captain of their sole salvation,
Having kept the truth, may enter in.
No more deaths to die, no more fights to win!
Lift your heads, ye gates, that the righteous nation
Led by the Great Captain of their sole salvation,
Having kept the truth, may enter in.
A SONG FOR THE FEAST OF ALL SAINTS.
Love is the key of life and death,
Of hidden heavenly mystery:
Of all Christ is, of all He saith,
Love is the key.
Of hidden heavenly mystery:
Of all Christ is, of all He saith,
Love is the key.
As three times to His Saint He saith,
He saith to me, He saith to thee,
Breathing His Grace-conferring Breath:
“Lovest thou Me?”
He saith to me, He saith to thee,
Breathing His Grace-conferring Breath:
“Lovest thou Me?”
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Ah, Lord, I have such feeble faith,
Such feeble hope to comfort me:
But love it is, is strong as death,
And I love Thee.
Such feeble hope to comfort me:
But love it is, is strong as death,
And I love Thee.
SUNDAY BEFORE ADVENT.
The end of all things is at hand. We all
Stand in the balance trembling as we stand;
Or if not trembling, tottering to a fall.
The end of all things is at hand.
Stand in the balance trembling as we stand;
Or if not trembling, tottering to a fall.
The end of all things is at hand.
O hearts of men, covet the unending land!
O hearts of men, covet the musical,
Sweet, never-ending waters of that strand!
O hearts of men, covet the musical,
Sweet, never-ending waters of that strand!
While Earth shows poor, a slippery rolling ball,
And Hell looms vast, a gulf unplumbed, unspanned,
And Heaven flings wide its gates to great and small,
The end of all things is at hand.
And Hell looms vast, a gulf unplumbed, unspanned,
And Heaven flings wide its gates to great and small,
The end of all things is at hand.
GIFTS AND GRACES.
[Love loveth Thee, and wisdom loveth Thee]
Love loveth Thee, and wisdom loveth Thee:The love that loveth Thee sits satisfied;
Wisdom that loveth Thee grows million-eyed,
Learning what was, and is, and is to be.
Wisdom and love are glad of all they see;
Their heart is deep, their hope is not denied;
They rock at rest on time's unresting tide,
And wait to rest thro' long eternity.
Wisdom and love and rest, each holy soul
Hath these today while day is only night:
What shall souls have when morning brings to light
Love, wisdom, rest, God's treasure stored above?
Palm shall they have, and harp and aureole,
Wisdom, rest, love—and lo! the whole is love.
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[Lord, give me love that I may love Thee much]
Lord, give me love that I may love Thee much,Yea, give me love that I may love Thee more,
And all for love may worship and adore
And touch Thee with love's consecrated touch.
I halt today; be love my cheerful crutch,
My feet to plod, some day my wings to soar:
Some day; but, Lord, not any day before
Thou call me perfect, having made me such.
This is a day of love, a day of sorrow,
Love tempering sorrow to a sort of bliss;
A day that shortens while we call it long:
A longer day of love will dawn tomorrow,
A longer, brighter, lovelier day than this,
Endless, all love, no sorrow, but a song.
“As a king, . . . . unto the King.”
Love doth so grace and dignify
That beggars treat as king with king
Before the Throne of God most High:
Love recognises love's own cry,
And stoops to take love's offering.
That beggars treat as king with king
Before the Throne of God most High:
Love recognises love's own cry,
And stoops to take love's offering.
A loving heart, tho' soiled and bruised;
A kindling heart, tho' cold before;
Who ever came and was refused
By Love? Do, Lord, as Thou art used
To do, and make me love Thee more.
A kindling heart, tho' cold before;
Who ever came and was refused
By Love? Do, Lord, as Thou art used
To do, and make me love Thee more.
[O ye who love today]
O ye who love today,
Turn away
From Patience with her silver ray:
For Patience shows a twilight face,
Like a half-lighted moon
When daylight dies apace.
Turn away
From Patience with her silver ray:
For Patience shows a twilight face,
Like a half-lighted moon
When daylight dies apace.
But ye who love tomorrow
Beg or borrow
Today some bitterness of sorrow:
For Patience shows a lustrous face,
In depth of night her noon;
Then to her sun gives place.
Beg or borrow
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For Patience shows a lustrous face,
In depth of night her noon;
Then to her sun gives place.
[Life that was born today]
Life that was born today
Must make no stay,
But tend to end
As blossom-bloom of May.
O Lord, confirm my root,
Train up my shoot,
To live and give
Harvest of wholesome fruit.
Must make no stay,
But tend to end
As blossom-bloom of May.
O Lord, confirm my root,
Train up my shoot,
To live and give
Harvest of wholesome fruit.
Life that was born to die
Sets heart on high,
And counts and mounts
Steep stages of the sky.
Two things, Lord, I desire
And I require;
Love's name, and flame
To wrap my soul in fire.
Sets heart on high,
And counts and mounts
Steep stages of the sky.
Two things, Lord, I desire
And I require;
Love's name, and flame
To wrap my soul in fire.
Life that was born to love
Sends heart above
Both cloud and shroud,
And broods a peaceful dove.
Two things I ask of Thee;
Deny not me;
Eyesight and light
Thy Blessed Face to see.
Sends heart above
Both cloud and shroud,
And broods a peaceful dove.
Two things I ask of Thee;
Deny not me;
Eyesight and light
Thy Blessed Face to see.
“Perfect Love casteth out Fear.”
Lord, give me blessed fear,
And much more blessed love
That fearing I may love Thee here
And be Thy harmless dove:
And much more blessed love
That fearing I may love Thee here
And be Thy harmless dove:
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Until Thou cast out fear,
Until Thou perfect love,
Until Thou end mine exile here
And fetch Thee home Thy dove.
Until Thou perfect love,
Until Thou end mine exile here
And fetch Thee home Thy dove.
[Hope is the counterpoise of fear]
Hope is the counterpoise of fear
While night enthralls us here.
While night enthralls us here.
Fear hath a startled eye that holds a tear:
Hope hath an upward glance, for dawn draws near
With sunshine and with cheer.
Fear gazing earthwards spies a bier;
And sets herself to rear
A lamentable tomb where leaves drop sere,
Bleaching to congruous skeletons austere:
Hope chants a funeral hymn most sweet and clear,
And seems true chanticleer
Of resurrection and of all things dear
In the oncoming endless year.
Hope hath an upward glance, for dawn draws near
With sunshine and with cheer.
Fear gazing earthwards spies a bier;
And sets herself to rear
A lamentable tomb where leaves drop sere,
Bleaching to congruous skeletons austere:
Hope chants a funeral hymn most sweet and clear,
And seems true chanticleer
Of resurrection and of all things dear
In the oncoming endless year.
Fear ballasts hope, hope buoys up fear,
And both befit us here.
And both befit us here.
“Subject to like Passions as we are.”
Whoso hath anguish is not dead in sin,Whoso hath pangs of utterless desire.
Like as in smouldering flax which harbours fire,—
Red heat of conflagration may begin,
Melt that hard heart, burn out the dross within,
Permeate with glory the new man entire,
Crown him with fire, mould for his hands a lyre
Of fiery strings to sound with those who win.
Anguish is anguish, yet potential bliss,
Pangs of desire are birth-throes of delight;
Those citizens felt such who walk in white,
And meet, but no more sunder, with a kiss;
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And love, adore, rejoice, with all their might.
[Experience bows a sweet contented face]
Experience bows a sweet contented face,Still setting to her seal that God is true:
Beneath the sun, she knows, is nothing new;
All things that go return with measured pace,
Winds, rivers, man's still recommencing race:—
While Hope beyond earth's circle strains her view,
Past sun and moon, and rain and rainbow too,
Enamoured of unseen eternal grace.
Experience saith, “My God doth all things well:”
And for the morrow taketh little care,
Such peace and patience garrison her soul:—
While Hope, who never yet hath eyed the goal,
With arms flung forth, and backward floating hair,
Touches, embraces, hugs the invisible.
“Charity never Faileth.”
Such is Love, it comforts in extremity,
Tho' a tempest rage around and rage above,
Tempest beyond tempest, far as eye can see:
Such is Love,
Tho' a tempest rage around and rage above,
Tempest beyond tempest, far as eye can see:
Such is Love,
That it simply heeds its mourning inward Dove;
Dove which craves contented for a home to be
Set amid the myrtles or an olive grove.
Dove which craves contented for a home to be
Set amid the myrtles or an olive grove.
Dove-eyed Love contemplates the Twelve-fruited Tree,
Marks the bowing palms which worship as they move;
Simply sayeth, simply prayeth, “All for me!”
Such is Love.
Marks the bowing palms which worship as they move;
Simply sayeth, simply prayeth, “All for me!”
Such is Love.
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“The Greatest of these is Charity.”
A moon impoverished amid stars curtailed,A sun of its exuberant lustre shorn,
A transient morning that is scarcely morn,
A lingering night in double dimness veiled.—
Our hands are slackened and our strength has failed:
We born to darkness, wherefore were we born?
No ripening more for olive, grape, or corn:
Faith faints, hope faints, even love himself has paled.
Nay! love lifts up a face like any rose
Flushing and sweet above a thorny stem,
Softly protesting that the way he knows;
And as for faith and hope, will carry them
Safe to the gate of New Jerusalem,
Where light shines full and where the palm-tree blows.
[All beneath the sun hasteth]
All beneath the sun hasteth,
All that hath begun wasteth;
Earth-notes change in tune
With the changeful moon,
Which waneth
While earth's chant complaineth.
All that hath begun wasteth;
Earth-notes change in tune
With the changeful moon,
Which waneth
While earth's chant complaineth.
Plumbs the deep, Fear descending;
Scales the steep, Hope ascending;
Faith betwixt the twain
Plies both goad and rein,
Half fearing,
All hopeful, day is nearing.
Scales the steep, Hope ascending;
Faith betwixt the twain
Plies both goad and rein,
Half fearing,
All hopeful, day is nearing.
[If thou be dead, forgive and thou shalt live]
If thou be dead, forgive and thou shalt live;
If thou hast sinned, forgive and be forgiven;
God waiteth to be gracious and forgive,
And open heaven.
If thou hast sinned, forgive and be forgiven;
God waiteth to be gracious and forgive,
And open heaven.
Set not thy will to die and not to live;
Set not thy face as flint refusing heaven;
Thou fool, set not thy heart on hell: forgive
And be forgiven.
Set not thy face as flint refusing heaven;
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And be forgiven.
“Let Patience have her perfect work.”
Can man rejoice who lives in hourly fear?Can man make haste who toils beneath a load?
Can man feel rest who has no fixed abode?
All he lays hold of, or can see or hear,
Is passing by, is prompt to disappear,
Is doomed, foredoomed, continueth in no stay:
This day he breathes in is his latter day,
This year of time is this world's latter year.
Thus in himself is he most miserable:
Out of himself, Lord, lift him up to Thee,
Out of himself and all these worlds that flee;
Hold him in patience underneath the rod,
Anchor his hope beyond life's ebb and swell,
Perfect his patience in the love of God.
[Patience must dwell with Love, for Love and Sorrow]
Patience must dwell with Love, for Love and Sorrow
Have pitched their tent together here:
Love all alone will build a house tomorrow,
And sorrow not be near.
Have pitched their tent together here:
Love all alone will build a house tomorrow,
And sorrow not be near.
Today for Love's sake hope, still hope, in sorrow,
Rest in her shade and hold her dear:
Today she nurses thee; and lo! tomorrow
Love only will be near.
Rest in her shade and hold her dear:
Today she nurses thee; and lo! tomorrow
Love only will be near.
“Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord.”
All that we see rejoices in the sunshine,
All that we hear makes merry in the Spring:
God grant us such a mind to be glad after our kind,
And to sing
His praises for everything.
All that we hear makes merry in the Spring:
God grant us such a mind to be glad after our kind,
And to sing
His praises for everything.
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Much that we see must vanish with the sunshine,
Sweet Spring must fail, and fail the choir of Spring:
But Wisdom shall burn on when the lesser lights are gone,
And shall sing
God's praises evermore for everything.
Sweet Spring must fail, and fail the choir of Spring:
But Wisdom shall burn on when the lesser lights are gone,
And shall sing
God's praises evermore for everything.
[What is the beginning? Love. What the course? Love still.]
What is the beginning? Love. What the course? Love still.What the goal? The goal is Love on the happy hill.
Is there nothing then but Love, search we sky or earth?
There is nothing out of Love hath perpetual worth:
All things flag but only Love, all things fail or flee;
There is nothing left but Love worthy you and me.
[Lord, make me pure]
Lord, make me pure:Only the pure shall see Thee as Thou art
And shall endure.
Lord, bring me low;
For Thou wert lowly in Thy blessed heart:
Lord, keep me so.
[Love, to be love, must walk Thy way]
Love, to be love, must walk Thy way
And work Thy Will;
Or if Thou say, “Lie still,”
Lie still and pray.
And work Thy Will;
Or if Thou say, “Lie still,”
Lie still and pray.
Love, Thine own Bride, with all her might
Will follow Thee,
And till the shadows flee
Keep Thee in sight.
Will follow Thee,
And till the shadows flee
Keep Thee in sight.
Love will not mar her peaceful face
With cares undue,
Faithless and hopeless too
And out of place.
With cares undue,
Faithless and hopeless too
And out of place.
Love, knowing Thou much more art Love,
Will sun her grief,
And pluck her myrtle-leaf,
And be Thy dove.
Will sun her grief,
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And be Thy dove.
Love here hath vast beatitude:
What shall be hers
Where there is no more curse,
But all is good?
What shall be hers
Where there is no more curse,
But all is good?
[Lord, I am feeble and of mean account]
Lord, I am feeble and of mean account:
Thou Who dost condescend as well as mount,
Stoop Thou Thyself to me
And grant me grace to hear and grace to see.
Thou Who dost condescend as well as mount,
Stoop Thou Thyself to me
And grant me grace to hear and grace to see.
Lord, if Thou grant me grace to hear and see
Thy very Self Who stoopest thus to me,
I make but slight account
Of aught beside wherein to sink or mount.
Thy very Self Who stoopest thus to me,
I make but slight account
Of aught beside wherein to sink or mount.
[Tune me, O Lord, into one harmony]
Tune me, O Lord, into one harmony
With Thee, one full responsive vibrant chord;
Unto Thy praise all love and melody,
Tune me, O Lord.
With Thee, one full responsive vibrant chord;
Unto Thy praise all love and melody,
Tune me, O Lord.
Thus need I flee nor death, nor fire, nor sword:
A little while these be, then cease to be,
And sent by Thee not these should be abhorred.
A little while these be, then cease to be,
And sent by Thee not these should be abhorred.
Devil and world, gird me with strength to flee,
To flee the flesh, and arm me with Thy word:
As Thy Heart is to my heart, unto Thee
Tune me, O Lord.
To flee the flesh, and arm me with Thy word:
As Thy Heart is to my heart, unto Thee
Tune me, O Lord.
“They shall be as white as snow.”
Whiteness most white. Ah, to be clean again
In mine own sight and God's most holy sight!
To reach thro' any flood or fire of pain
Whiteness most white:
In mine own sight and God's most holy sight!
To reach thro' any flood or fire of pain
Whiteness most white:
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To learn to hate the wrong and love the right
Even while I walk thro' shadows that are vain,
Descending thro' vain shadows into night.
Even while I walk thro' shadows that are vain,
Descending thro' vain shadows into night.
Lord, not today: yet some day bliss for bane
Give me, for mortal frailty give me might,
Give innocence for guilt, and for my stain
Whiteness most white.
Give me, for mortal frailty give me might,
Give innocence for guilt, and for my stain
Whiteness most white.
[Thy lilies drink the dew]
Thy lilies drink the dew,Thy lambs the rill, and I will drink them too;
For those in purity
And innocence are types, dear Lord, of Thee.
The fragrant lily flower
Bows and fulfils Thy Will its lifelong hour;
The lamb at rest and play
Fulfils Thy Will in gladness all the day;
They leave tomorrow's cares
Until the morrow, what it brings it bears.
And I, Lord, would be such;
Not high or great or anxious overmuch,
But pure and temperate,
Earnest to do Thy Will betimes and late,
Fragrant with love and praise
And innocence thro' all my appointed days;
Thy lily I would be,
Spotless and sweet, Thy lamb to follow Thee.
“When I was in trouble I called upon the Lord.”
A burdened heart that bleeds and bears
And hopes and waits in pain,
And faints beneath its fears and cares,
Yet hopes again:
And hopes and waits in pain,
And faints beneath its fears and cares,
Yet hopes again:
Wilt Thou accept the heart I bring,
O gracious Lord and kind,
To ease it of a torturing sting,
And staunch and bind?
O gracious Lord and kind,
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And staunch and bind?
Alas, if Thou wilt none of this,
None else have I to give:
Look Thou upon it as it is,
Accept, relieve.
None else have I to give:
Look Thou upon it as it is,
Accept, relieve.
Or if Thou wilt not yet relieve,
Be not extreme to sift:
Accept a faltering will to give,
Itself Thy gift.
Be not extreme to sift:
Accept a faltering will to give,
Itself Thy gift.
[Grant us such grace that we may work Thy Will]
Grant us such grace that we may work Thy Will
And speak Thy words and walk before Thy Face,
Profound and calm, like waters deep and still:
Grant us such grace.
And speak Thy words and walk before Thy Face,
Profound and calm, like waters deep and still:
Grant us such grace.
Not hastening and not loitering in our pace
For gloomiest valley or for sultriest hill,
Content and fearless on our downward race.
For gloomiest valley or for sultriest hill,
Content and fearless on our downward race.
As rivers seek a sea they cannot fill
But are themselves filled full in its embrace,
Absorbed, at rest, each river and each rill:
Grant us such grace.
But are themselves filled full in its embrace,
Absorbed, at rest, each river and each rill:
Grant us such grace.
“Who hath despised the day of small things?”
As violets so be I recluse and sweet,
Cheerful as daisies unaccounted rare,
Still sunward-gazing from a lowly seat,
Still sweetening wintry air.
Cheerful as daisies unaccounted rare,
Still sunward-gazing from a lowly seat,
Still sweetening wintry air.
While half-awakened Spring lags incomplete,
While lofty forest trees tower bleak and bare,
Daisies and violets own remotest heat
And bloom and make them fair.
While lofty forest trees tower bleak and bare,
Daisies and violets own remotest heat
And bloom and make them fair.
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“Do this, and he doeth it.”
Content to come, content to go,
Content to wrestle or to race,
Content to know or not to know,
Each in his place;
Content to wrestle or to race,
Content to know or not to know,
Each in his place;
Lord, grant us grace to love Thee so
That glad of heart and glad of face
At last we may sit, high or low,
Each in his place;
That glad of heart and glad of face
At last we may sit, high or low,
Each in his place;
Where pleasures flow as rivers flow,
And loss has left no barren trace,
And all that are, are perfect so,
Each in his place.
And loss has left no barren trace,
And all that are, are perfect so,
Each in his place.
“That no man take thy Crown.”
Be faithful unto death. Christ proffers thee
Crown of a life that draws immortal breath:
To thee He saith, yea, and He saith to me,
“Be faithful unto death.”
Crown of a life that draws immortal breath:
To thee He saith, yea, and He saith to me,
“Be faithful unto death.”
To every living soul that same He saith,
“Be faithful”:—whatsoever else we be,
Let us be faithful, challenging His faith.
“Be faithful”:—whatsoever else we be,
Let us be faithful, challenging His faith.
Tho' trouble storm around us like the sea,
Tho' hell surge up to scare us and to scathe,
Tho' heaven and earth betake themselves to flee,
“Be faithful unto death.”
Tho' hell surge up to scare us and to scathe,
Tho' heaven and earth betake themselves to flee,
“Be faithful unto death.”
“Ye are come unto Mount Sion.”
Fear, Faith, and Hope have sent their hearts above:Prudence, Obedience, and Humility
Climb at their call, all scaling heaven toward Love.
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Faith and Humility show grave and strong;
Prudence and Hope mount balanced equally.
Obedience marches marshalling their throng,
Goes first, goes last, to left hand or to right;
And all the six uplift a pilgrim's song.
By day they rest not, nor they rest by night:
While Love within them, with them, over them,
Weans them and woos them from the dark to light.
Each plies for staff not reed with broken stem,
But olive branch in pledge of patient peace;
Till Love being theirs in New Jerusalem,
Transfigure them to Love, and so they cease.
Love is the sole beatitude above:
All other graces, to their vast increase
Of glory, look on Love and mirror Love.
“Sit down in the lowest room.”
Lord, give me graceTo take the lowest place;
Nor even desire,
Unless it be Thy Will, to go up higher.
Except by grace,
I fail of lowest place;
Except desire
Sit low, it aims awry to go up higher.
“Lord, it is good for us to be here.”
Grant us, O Lord, that patience and that faith:Faith's patience imperturbable in Thee,
Hope's patience till the long-drawn shadows flee,
Love's patience unresentful of all scathe.
Verily we need patience breath by breath;
Patience while faith holds up her glass to see,
While hope toils yoked in fear's copartnery,
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How gracious and how perfecting a grace
Must patience be on which those others wait:
Faith with suspended rapture in her face,
Hope pale and careful hand in hand with fear,
Love—ah, good love who would not antedate
God's Will, but saith, Good is it to be here.
[Lord, grant us grace to rest upon Thy word]
Lord, grant us grace to rest upon Thy word,
To rest in hope until we see Thy Face;
To rest thro' toil unruffled and unstirred,
Lord, grant us grace.
To rest in hope until we see Thy Face;
To rest thro' toil unruffled and unstirred,
Lord, grant us grace.
This burden and this heat wear on apace:
Night comes, when sweeter than night's singing bird
Will swell the silence of our ended race.
Night comes, when sweeter than night's singing bird
Will swell the silence of our ended race.
Ah, songs which flesh and blood have never heard
And cannot hear, songs of the silent place
Where rest remains! Lord, slake our hope deferred,
Lord, grant us grace.
And cannot hear, songs of the silent place
Where rest remains! Lord, slake our hope deferred,
Lord, grant us grace.
THE WORLD. SELF-DESTRUCTION.
“A vain Shadow.”
The world,—what a world, ah me!Mouldy, worm-eaten, grey:
Vain as a leaf from a tree,
As a fading day,
As veriest vanity,
As the froth and the spray
Of the hollow-billowed sea,
As what was and shall not be,
As what is and passes away.
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“Lord, save us, we perish.”
O Lord, seek us, O Lord, find usIn Thy patient care;
Be Thy Love before, behind us,
Round us, everywhere:
Lest the god of this world blind us,
Lest he speak us fair,
Lest he forge a chain to bind us,
Lest he bait a snare.
Turn not from us, call to mind us,
Find, embrace us, bear;
Be Thy Love before, behind us,
Round us, everywhere.
[What is this above thy head]
What is this above thy head,
O Man?—
The World, all overspread
With pearls and golden rays
And gems ablaze;
A sight which day and night
Fills an eye's span.
O Man?—
The World, all overspread
With pearls and golden rays
And gems ablaze;
A sight which day and night
Fills an eye's span.
What is this beneath thy feet,
O Saint?—
The World, a nauseous sweet
Puffed up and perishing;
A hollow thing,
A lie, a vanity,
Tinsel and paint.
O Saint?—
The World, a nauseous sweet
Puffed up and perishing;
A hollow thing,
A lie, a vanity,
Tinsel and paint.
What is she while time is time,
O Man?—
In a perpetual prime
Beauty and youth she hath;
And her footpath
Breeds flowers thro' dancing hours
Since time began.
O Man?—
In a perpetual prime
Beauty and youth she hath;
And her footpath
Breeds flowers thro' dancing hours
Since time began.
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While time lengthens what is she,
O Saint?—
Nought: yea, all men shall see
How she is nought at all,
When her death-pall
Of fire ends their desire
And brands her taint.
O Saint?—
Nought: yea, all men shall see
How she is nought at all,
When her death-pall
Of fire ends their desire
And brands her taint.
Ah, poor Man, befooled and slow
And faint!
Ah, poorest Man, if so
Thou turn thy back on bliss
And choose amiss!
For thou art choosing now:
Sinner,—or Saint.
And faint!
Ah, poorest Man, if so
Thou turn thy back on bliss
And choose amiss!
For thou art choosing now:
Sinner,—or Saint.
Babylon the Great.
Foul is she and ill-favoured, set askew:Gaze not upon her till thou dream her fair,
Lest she should mesh thee in her wanton hair,
Adept in arts grown old yet ever new.
Her heart lusts not for love, but thro' and thro'
For blood, as spotted panther lusts in lair;
No wine is in her cup, but filth is there
Unutterable, with plagues hid out of view.
Gaze not upon her, for her dancing whirl
Turns giddy the fixed gazer presently:
Gaze not upon her, lest thou be as she
When, at the far end of her long desire,
Her scarlet vest and gold and gem and pearl
And she amid her pomp are set on fire.
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“Standing afar off for the fear of her torment.”
Is this the end? is there no end but this?
Yea, none beside:
No other end for pride
And foulness and besottedness.
Yea, none beside:
No other end for pride
And foulness and besottedness.
Hath she no friend? hath she no clinging friend?
Nay, none at all;
Who stare upon her fall
Quake for themselves with hair on end.
Nay, none at all;
Who stare upon her fall
Quake for themselves with hair on end.
Will she be done away? vanish away?
Yea, like a dream;
Yea, like the shades that seem
Somewhat, and lo! are nought by day.
Yea, like a dream;
Yea, like the shades that seem
Somewhat, and lo! are nought by day.
Alas for her amid man's helpless moan,
Alas for her!
She hath no comforter:
In solitude of fire she sits alone.
Alas for her!
She hath no comforter:
In solitude of fire she sits alone.
“O Lucifer, Son of the Morning!”
Of fallen star! a darkened light,
A glory hurtled from its car,
Self-blasted from the holy height:
Oh fallen star!
A glory hurtled from its car,
Self-blasted from the holy height:
Oh fallen star!
Fallen beyond earth's utmost bar,
Beyond return, beyond far sight
Of outmost glimmering nebular.
Beyond return, beyond far sight
Of outmost glimmering nebular.
Now blackness, which once walked in white;
Now death, whose life once glowed afar;
Oh son of dawn that loved the night,
Oh fallen star!
Now death, whose life once glowed afar;
Oh son of dawn that loved the night,
Oh fallen star!
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[Alas, alas! for the self-destroyed]
Alas, alas! for the self-destroyed
Vanish as images from a glass,
Sink down and die down by hope unbuoyed:—
Alas, alas!
Vanish as images from a glass,
Sink down and die down by hope unbuoyed:—
Alas, alas!
Who shall stay their ruinous mass?
Besotted, reckless, possessed, decoyed,
They hurry to the dolorous pass.
Besotted, reckless, possessed, decoyed,
They hurry to the dolorous pass.
Saints fall a-weeping who would have joyed,
Sore they weep for a glory that was,
For a fulness emptied into the void,
Alas, alas!
Sore they weep for a glory that was,
For a fulness emptied into the void,
Alas, alas!
[As froth on the face of the deep]
As froth on the face of the deep,As foam on the crest of the sea,
As dreams at the waking of sleep,
As gourd of a day and a night,
As harvest that no man shall reap,
As vintage that never shall be,
Is hope if it cling not aright,
O my God, unto Thee.
“Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.”
In tempest and storm blackness of darkness for ever,A fire unextinguished, a worm's indestructible swarm;
Where no hope shall ever be more, and love shall be never,
In tempest and storm;
Where the form of all things is fashionless, void of all form;
Where from death that severeth all, the soul cannot sever
In tempest and storm.
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[Toll, bell, toll. For hope is flying]
Toll, bell, toll. For hope is flying
Sighing from the earthbound soul:
Life is sighing, life is dying:
Toll, bell, toll.
Sighing from the earthbound soul:
Life is sighing, life is dying:
Toll, bell, toll.
Gropes in its own grave the mole
Wedding darkness, undescrying,
Tending to no different goal.
Wedding darkness, undescrying,
Tending to no different goal.
Self-slain soul, in vain thy sighing:
Self-slain, who should make thee whole?
Vain the clamour of thy crying:
Toll, bell, toll.
Self-slain, who should make thee whole?
Vain the clamour of thy crying:
Toll, bell, toll.
DIVERS WORLDS. TIME AND ETERNITY.
[Earth has clear call of daily bells]
Earth has clear call of daily bells,
A chancel-vault of gloom and star,
A rapture where the anthems are,
A thunder when the organ swells:
Alas, man's daily life—what else?—
Is out of tune with daily bells.
A chancel-vault of gloom and star,
A rapture where the anthems are,
A thunder when the organ swells:
Alas, man's daily life—what else?—
Is out of tune with daily bells.
While Paradise accords the chimes
Of Earth and Heaven, its patient pause
Is rest fulfilling music's laws.
Saints sit and gaze, where oftentimes
Precursive flush of morning climbs
And air vibrates with coming chimes.
Of Earth and Heaven, its patient pause
Is rest fulfilling music's laws.
Saints sit and gaze, where oftentimes
Precursive flush of morning climbs
And air vibrates with coming chimes.
“Escape to the Mountain.”
I peered within, and saw a world of sin;
Upward, and saw a world of righteousness;
Downward, and saw darkness and flame begin
Which no man can express.
Upward, and saw a world of righteousness;
Downward, and saw darkness and flame begin
Which no man can express.
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I girt me up, I gat me up to flee
From face of darkness and devouring flame:
And fled I had, but guilt is loading me
With dust of death and shame.
From face of darkness and devouring flame:
And fled I had, but guilt is loading me
With dust of death and shame.
Yet still the light of righteousness beams pure,
Beams to me from the world of far-off day:—
Lord, Who hast called them happy that endure,
Lord, make me such as they.
Beams to me from the world of far-off day:—
Lord, Who hast called them happy that endure,
Lord, make me such as they.
[I lift mine eyes to see: earth vanisheth.]
I lift mine eyes to see: earth vanisheth.
I lift up wistful eyes and bend my knee:
Trembling, bowed down, and face to face with Death,
I lift mine eyes to see.
I lift up wistful eyes and bend my knee:
Trembling, bowed down, and face to face with Death,
I lift mine eyes to see.
Lo, what I see is Death that shadows me:
Yet whilst I, seeing, draw a shuddering breath,
Death like a mist grows rare perceptibly.
Yet whilst I, seeing, draw a shuddering breath,
Death like a mist grows rare perceptibly.
Beyond the darkness light, beyond the scathe
Healing, beyond the Cross a palm-branch tree,
Beyond Death Life, on evidence of faith:
I lift mine eyes to see.
Healing, beyond the Cross a palm-branch tree,
Beyond Death Life, on evidence of faith:
I lift mine eyes to see.
“Yet a little while.”
Heaven is not far, tho' far the skyOverarching earth and main.
It takes not long to live and die,
Die, revive, and rise again.
Not long: how long? Oh, long re-echoing song!
O Lord, how long?
“Behold, it was very good.”
All things are fair, if we had eyes to see
How first God made them goodly everywhere:
And goodly still in Paradise they be,—
All things are fair.
How first God made them goodly everywhere:
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All things are fair.
O Lord, the solemn heavens Thy praise declare;
The multi-fashioned saints bring praise to Thee,
As doves fly home and cast away their care.
The multi-fashioned saints bring praise to Thee,
As doves fly home and cast away their care.
As doves on divers branches of their tree,
Perched high or low, sit all contented there
Not mourning any more; in each degree
All things are fair.
Perched high or low, sit all contented there
Not mourning any more; in each degree
All things are fair.
“Whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.”
When all the overwork of life
Is finished once, and fallen asleep
We shrink no more beneath the knife,
But having sown prepare to reap;
Delivered from the crossway rough,
Delivered from the thorny scourge,
Delivered from the tossing surge,
Then shall we find—(please God!)—it is enough?
Is finished once, and fallen asleep
We shrink no more beneath the knife,
But having sown prepare to reap;
Delivered from the crossway rough,
Delivered from the thorny scourge,
Delivered from the tossing surge,
Then shall we find—(please God!)—it is enough?
Not in this world of hope deferred,
This world of perishable stuff;
Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard,
Nor heart conceived that full “enough”:
Here moans the separating sea,
Here harvests fail, here breaks the heart;
There God shall join and no man part,
All one in Christ, so one—(please God!)—with me.
This world of perishable stuff;
Eye hath not seen, nor ear hath heard,
Nor heart conceived that full “enough”:
Here moans the separating sea,
Here harvests fail, here breaks the heart;
There God shall join and no man part,
All one in Christ, so one—(please God!)—with me.
[This near-at-hand land breeds pain by measure]
This near-at-hand land breeds pain by measure:
That far-away land overflows with treasure
Of heaped-up good pleasure.
That far-away land overflows with treasure
Of heaped-up good pleasure.
Our land that we see is befouled by evil:
The land that we see not makes mirth and revel,
Far from death and devil.
The land that we see not makes mirth and revel,
Far from death and devil.
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This land hath for music sobbing and sighing:
That land hath soft speech and sweet soft replying
Of all loves undying.
That land hath soft speech and sweet soft replying
Of all loves undying.
This land hath for pastime errors and follies:
That land hath unending unflagging solace
Of full-chanted “Holies.”
That land hath unending unflagging solace
Of full-chanted “Holies.”
Up and away, call the Angels to us;
Come to our home where no foes pursue us,
And no tears bedew us;
Come to our home where no foes pursue us,
And no tears bedew us;
Where that which riseth sets again never,
Where that which springeth flows in a river
For ever and ever;
Where that which springeth flows in a river
For ever and ever;
Where harvest justifies labour of sowing,
Where that which budded comes to the blowing
Sweet beyond your knowing.
Where that which budded comes to the blowing
Sweet beyond your knowing.
Come and laugh with us, sing in our singing;
Come, yearn no more, but rest in your clinging.
See what we are bringing;
Come, yearn no more, but rest in your clinging.
See what we are bringing;
Crowns like our own crowns, robes for your wearing;
For love of you we kiss them in bearing,
All good with you sharing:
For love of you we kiss them in bearing,
All good with you sharing:
Over you gladdening, in you delighting;
Come from your famine, your failure, your fighting;
Come to full wrong-righting.
Come from your famine, your failure, your fighting;
Come to full wrong-righting.
Come, where all balm is garnered to ease you;
Come, where all beauty is spread out to please you;
Come, gaze upon Jesu.
Come, where all beauty is spread out to please you;
Come, gaze upon Jesu.
“Was Thy Wrath against the Sea?”
The sea laments with unappeasableHankering wail of loss,
Lifting its hands on high and passing by
Out of the lovely light:
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Of clamorous waves which toss;
Lifting its hands on high it passes by
From light into the night.
Peace, peace, thou sea! God's wisdom worketh well,
Assigns it crown or cross:
Lift we all hands on high, and passing by
Attest: God doeth right.
“And there was no more Sea.”
Voices from above and from beneath,
Voices of creation near and far,
Voices out of life and out of death,
Out of measureless space,
Sun, moon, star,
In oneness of contentment offering praise.
Voices of creation near and far,
Voices out of life and out of death,
Out of measureless space,
Sun, moon, star,
In oneness of contentment offering praise.
Heaven and earth and sea jubilant,
Jubilant all things that dwell therein;
Filled to fullest overflow they chant,
Still roll onward, swell,
Still begin,
Never flagging praise interminable.
Jubilant all things that dwell therein;
Filled to fullest overflow they chant,
Still roll onward, swell,
Still begin,
Never flagging praise interminable.
Thou who must fall silent in a while,
Chant thy sweetest, gladdest, best, at once;
Sun thyself today, keep peace and smile;
By love upward send
Orisons,
Accounting love thy lot and love thine end.
Chant thy sweetest, gladdest, best, at once;
Sun thyself today, keep peace and smile;
By love upward send
Orisons,
Accounting love thy lot and love thine end.
[Roses on a brier]
Roses on a brier,
Pearls from out the bitter sea,
Such is earth's desire
However pure it be.
Pearls from out the bitter sea,
Such is earth's desire
However pure it be.
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Neither bud nor brier,
Neither pearl nor brine for me:
Be stilled, my long desire;
There shall be no more sea.
Neither pearl nor brine for me:
Be stilled, my long desire;
There shall be no more sea.
Be stilled, my passionate heart;
Old earth shall end, new earth shall be:
Be still, and earn thy part
Where shall be no more sea.
Old earth shall end, new earth shall be:
Be still, and earn thy part
Where shall be no more sea.
[We are those who tremble at Thy word]
We are those who tremble at Thy word;
Who faltering walk in darkness toward our close
Of mortal life, by terrors curbed and spurred:
We are of those.
Who faltering walk in darkness toward our close
Of mortal life, by terrors curbed and spurred:
We are of those.
We journey to that land which no man knows
Who any more can make his voice be heard
Above the clamour of our wants and woes.
Who any more can make his voice be heard
Above the clamour of our wants and woes.
Not ours the hearts Thy loftiest love hath stirred,
Not such as we Thy lily and Thy rose:—
Yet, Hope of those who hope with hope deferred,
We are of those.
Not such as we Thy lily and Thy rose:—
Yet, Hope of those who hope with hope deferred,
We are of those.
“Awake, thou that sleepest.”
The night is far spent, the day is at hand:
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
And let us put on the armour of light.
Night for the dead in their stiffness and starkness!
Day for the living who mount in their might
Out of their graves to the beautiful land.
Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness,
And let us put on the armour of light.
Night for the dead in their stiffness and starkness!
Day for the living who mount in their might
Out of their graves to the beautiful land.
Far, far away lies the beautiful land:
Mount on wide wings of exceeding desire,
Mount, look not back, mount to life and to light,
Mount by the gleam of your lamps all on fire
Up from the dead men and up from the night.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Mount on wide wings of exceeding desire,
Mount, look not back, mount to life and to light,
Mount by the gleam of your lamps all on fire
Up from the dead men and up from the night.
The night is far spent, the day is at hand.
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[We know not when, we know not where]
We know not when, we know not where,
We know not what that world will be;
But this we know: it will be fair
To see.
We know not what that world will be;
But this we know: it will be fair
To see.
With heart athirst and thirsty face
We know and know not what shall be:
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace
To see.
We know and know not what shall be:
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace
To see.
Christ Jesus bring us of His grace,
Beyond all prayers our hope can pray,
One day to see Him face to Face,
One day.
Beyond all prayers our hope can pray,
One day to see Him face to Face,
One day.
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the Hills.”
When sick of life and all the world—
How sick of all desire but Thee!—
I lift mine eyes up to the hills,
Eyes of my heart that see,
I see beyond all death and ills
Refreshing green for heart and eyes,
The golden streets and gateways pearled,
The trees of Paradise.
How sick of all desire but Thee!—
I lift mine eyes up to the hills,
Eyes of my heart that see,
I see beyond all death and ills
Refreshing green for heart and eyes,
The golden streets and gateways pearled,
The trees of Paradise.
“There is a time for all things,” saith
The Word of Truth, Thyself the Word;
And many things Thou reasonest of:
A time for hope deferred,
But time is now for grief and fears;
A time for life, but now is death;
Oh, when shall be the time of love
When Thou shalt wipe our tears?
The Word of Truth, Thyself the Word;
And many things Thou reasonest of:
A time for hope deferred,
But time is now for grief and fears;
A time for life, but now is death;
Oh, when shall be the time of love
When Thou shalt wipe our tears?
Then the new Heavens and Earth shall be
Where righteousness shall dwell indeed;
There shall be no more blight, nor need,
Nor barrier of the sea;
No sun and moon alternating,
For God shall be the Light thereof;
No sorrow more, no death, no sting,
For God Who reigns is Love.
Where righteousness shall dwell indeed;
There shall be no more blight, nor need,
Nor barrier of the sea;
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For God shall be the Light thereof;
No sorrow more, no death, no sting,
For God Who reigns is Love.
“Then whose shall those things be?”
Oh what is earth, that we should buildOur houses here, and seek concealed
Poor treasure, and add field to field,
And heap to heap, and store to store,
Still grasping more and seeking more,
While step by step Death nears the door?
“His Banner over me was Love.”
In that world we weary to attain,
Love's furled banner floats at large unfurled:
There is no more doubt and no more pain
In that world.
Love's furled banner floats at large unfurled:
There is no more doubt and no more pain
In that world.
There are gems and gold and inlets pearled;
There the verdure fadeth not again;
There no clinging tendrils droop uncurled.
There the verdure fadeth not again;
There no clinging tendrils droop uncurled.
Here incessant tides stir up the main,
Stormy miry depths aloft are hurled:
There is no more sea, or storm, or stain,
In that world.
Stormy miry depths aloft are hurled:
There is no more sea, or storm, or stain,
In that world.
[Beloved, yield thy time to God, for He]
Beloved, yield thy time to God, for HeWill make eternity thy recompense;
Give all thy substance for His Love, and be
Beatified past earth's experience.
Serve Him in bonds, until He set thee free;
Serve Him in dust, until He lift thee thence;
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When the great trumpet sounds to bid thee hence.
Shall setting day win day that will not set?
Poor price wert thou to spend thyself for Christ,
Had not His wealth thy poverty sufficed:
Yet since He makes His garden of thy clod,
Water thy lily, rose, or violet,
And offer up thy sweetness unto God.
[Time seems not short]
Time seems not short:
If so I call to mind
Its vast prerogative to loose or bind,
And bear and strike amort
All humankind.
If so I call to mind
Its vast prerogative to loose or bind,
And bear and strike amort
All humankind.
Time seems not long:
If I peer out and see
Sphere within sphere, time in eternity,
And hear the alternate song
Cry endlessly.
If I peer out and see
Sphere within sphere, time in eternity,
And hear the alternate song
Cry endlessly.
Time greatly short,
O time so briefly long,
Yea, time sole battle-ground of right and wrong:
Art thou a time for sport
And for a song?
O time so briefly long,
Yea, time sole battle-ground of right and wrong:
Art thou a time for sport
And for a song?
[The half moon shows a face of plaintive sweetness]
The half moon shows a face of plaintive sweetness
Ready and poised to wax or wane;
A fire of pale desire in incompleteness,
Tending to pleasure or to pain:—
Lo, while we gaze she rolleth on in fleetness
To perfect loss or perfect gain.
Ready and poised to wax or wane;
A fire of pale desire in incompleteness,
Tending to pleasure or to pain:—
Lo, while we gaze she rolleth on in fleetness
To perfect loss or perfect gain.
Half bitterness we know, we know half sweetness;
This world is all on wax, on wane:
When shall completeness round time's incompleteness,
Fulfilling joy, fulfilling pain?—
Lo, while we ask, life rolleth on in fleetness
To finished loss or finished gain.
This world is all on wax, on wane:
When shall completeness round time's incompleteness,
Fulfilling joy, fulfilling pain?—
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To finished loss or finished gain.
“As the Doves to their windows.”
They throng from the east and the west,
The north and the south, with a song;
To golden abodes of their rest
They throng.
The north and the south, with a song;
To golden abodes of their rest
They throng.
Eternity stretches out long:
Time, brief at its worst or its best,
Will quit them of ruin and wrong.
Time, brief at its worst or its best,
Will quit them of ruin and wrong.
A rainbow aloft for their crest,
A palm for their weakness made strong!
As doves breast all winds to their nest,
They throng.
A palm for their weakness made strong!
As doves breast all winds to their nest,
They throng.
[Oh knell of a passing time]
Oh knell of a passing time,
Will it never cease to chime?
Oh stir of the tedious sea,
Will it never cease to be?
Yea, when night and when day,
Moon and sun, pass away.
Will it never cease to chime?
Oh stir of the tedious sea,
Will it never cease to be?
Yea, when night and when day,
Moon and sun, pass away.
Surely the sun burns low,
The moon makes ready to go,
Broad ocean ripples to waste,
Time is running in haste,
Night is numbered, and day
Numbered to pass away.
The moon makes ready to go,
Broad ocean ripples to waste,
Time is running in haste,
Night is numbered, and day
Numbered to pass away.
[Time passeth away with its pleasure and pain]
Time passeth away with its pleasure and pain,
Its garlands of cypress and bay,
With wealth and with want, with a balm and a bane,
Time passeth away.
Its garlands of cypress and bay,
With wealth and with want, with a balm and a bane,
Time passeth away.
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Eternity cometh to stay,
Eternity stayeth to go not again;
Eternity barring the way,
Eternity stayeth to go not again;
Eternity barring the way,
Arresting all courses of planet or main,
Arresting who plan or who pray,
Arresting creation: while grand in its wane
Time passeth away.
Arresting who plan or who pray,
Arresting creation: while grand in its wane
Time passeth away.
“The Earth shall tremble at the Look of Him.”
Tremble, thou earth, at the Presence of the Lord
Whose Will conceived thee and brought thee to the birth,
Always, everywhere, thy Lord to be adored:
Tremble, thou earth.
Whose Will conceived thee and brought thee to the birth,
Always, everywhere, thy Lord to be adored:
Tremble, thou earth.
Wilt thou laugh time away in music and mirth?
Time hath days of pestilence, hath days of a sword,
Hath days of hunger and thirst in desolate dearth.
Time hath days of pestilence, hath days of a sword,
Hath days of hunger and thirst in desolate dearth.
Till eternity wake up the multicord
Thrilled harp of heaven, and breathe full its organ's girth
For joy of heaven and infinite reward,
Tremble, thou earth.
Thrilled harp of heaven, and breathe full its organ's girth
For joy of heaven and infinite reward,
Tremble, thou earth.
[Time lengthening, in the lengthening seemeth long]
Time lengthening, in the lengthening seemeth long:But ended Time will seem a little space,
A little while from morn to evensong,
A little while that ran a rapid race;
A little while, when once Eternity
Denies proportion to the other's pace.
Eternity to be and be and be,
Ever beginning, never ending still,
Still undiminished far as thought can see;
Farther than thought can see, by dint of will
Strung up and strained and shooting like a star
Past utmost bound of everlasting hill:
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Finishing sequence in its awful sum;
Eternity still rolling forth its car,
Eternity still here and still to come.
“All Flesh is Grass.”
So brief a life, and then an endless life
Or endless death;
So brief a life, then endless peace or strife:
Whoso considereth
How man but like a flower
Or shoot of grass
Blooms an hour,
Well may sigh “Alas!”
Or endless death;
So brief a life, then endless peace or strife:
Whoso considereth
How man but like a flower
Or shoot of grass
Blooms an hour,
Well may sigh “Alas!”
So brief a life, and then an endless grief
Or endless joy;
So brief a life, then ruin or relief:
What solace, what annoy
Of Time needs dwelling on?
It is, it was,
It is done,
While we sigh “Alas!”
Or endless joy;
So brief a life, then ruin or relief:
What solace, what annoy
Of Time needs dwelling on?
It is, it was,
It is done,
While we sigh “Alas!”
Yet saints are singing in a happy hope
Forecasting pleasure,
Bright eyes of faith enlarging all their scope;
Saints love beyond Time's measure:
Where love is, there is bliss
That will not pass;
Where love is,
Dies away “Alas!”
Forecasting pleasure,
Bright eyes of faith enlarging all their scope;
Saints love beyond Time's measure:
Where love is, there is bliss
That will not pass;
Where love is,
Dies away “Alas!”
[Heaven's chimes are slow, but sure to strike at last]
Heaven's chimes are slow, but sure to strike at last:
Earth's sands are slow, but surely dropping thro':
And much we have to suffer, much to do,
Before the time be past.
Earth's sands are slow, but surely dropping thro':
And much we have to suffer, much to do,
Before the time be past.
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Chimes that keep time are neither slow nor fast:
Not many are the numbered sands nor few:
A time to suffer, and a time to do,
And then the time is past.
Not many are the numbered sands nor few:
A time to suffer, and a time to do,
And then the time is past.
“There remaineth therefore a Rest to the People of God.”
Rest remains when all is done,
Work and vigil, prayer and fast,
All fulfilled from first to last,
All the length of time gone past
And eternity begun!
Work and vigil, prayer and fast,
All fulfilled from first to last,
All the length of time gone past
And eternity begun!
Fear and hope and chastening rod
Urge us on the narrow way:
Bear we now as best we may
Heat and burden of today,
Struggling, panting up to God.
Urge us on the narrow way:
Bear we now as best we may
Heat and burden of today,
Struggling, panting up to God.
[Parting after parting]
Parting after parting,
Sore loss and gnawing pain:
Meeting grows half a sorrow
Because of parting again.
When shall the day break
That these things shall not be?
When shall new earth be ours
Without a sea,
And time that is not time
But eternity?
Sore loss and gnawing pain:
Meeting grows half a sorrow
Because of parting again.
When shall the day break
That these things shall not be?
When shall new earth be ours
Without a sea,
And time that is not time
But eternity?
To meet, worth living for;
Worth dying for, to meet;
To meet, worth parting for,
Bitter forgot in sweet:
To meet, worth parting before
Never to part more.
Worth dying for, to meet;
To meet, worth parting for,
Bitter forgot in sweet:
To meet, worth parting before
Never to part more.
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“They put their trust in Thee, and were not confounded.”
I.
Together once, but never more
While Time and Death run out their runs:
Tho' sundered now as shore from shore,
Together once.
While Time and Death run out their runs:
Tho' sundered now as shore from shore,
Together once.
Nor rising suns, nor setting suns,
Nor life renewed which springtide bore,
Make one again Death's sundered ones.
Nor life renewed which springtide bore,
Make one again Death's sundered ones.
Eternity holds rest in store,
Holds hope of long reunions:
But holds it what they hungered for
Together once?
Holds hope of long reunions:
But holds it what they hungered for
Together once?
II.
Whatso it be, howso it be, Amen.
Blessed it is, believing, not to see.
Now God knows all that is; and we shall, then,
Whatso it be.
Blessed it is, believing, not to see.
Now God knows all that is; and we shall, then,
Whatso it be.
God's Will is best for man whose will is free.
God's Will is better to us, yea, than ten
Desires whereof He holds and weighs the key.
God's Will is better to us, yea, than ten
Desires whereof He holds and weighs the key.
Amid her household cares He guides the wren,
He guards the shifty mouse from poverty;
He knows all wants, allots each where and when,
Whatso it be.
He guards the shifty mouse from poverty;
He knows all wants, allots each where and when,
Whatso it be.
[Short is time, and only time is bleak]
Short is time, and only time is bleak;
Gauge the exceeding height thou hast to climb:
Long eternity is nigh to seek:
Short is time.
Gauge the exceeding height thou hast to climb:
Long eternity is nigh to seek:
Short is time.
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Time is shortening with the wintry rime:
Pray and watch and pray, girt up and meek;
Praying, watching, praying, chime by chime.
Pray and watch and pray, girt up and meek;
Praying, watching, praying, chime by chime.
Pray by silence if thou canst not speak:
Time is shortening; pray on till the prime:
Time is shortening; soul, fulfil thy week:
Short is time.
Time is shortening; pray on till the prime:
Time is shortening; soul, fulfil thy week:
Short is time.
For Each.
My harvest is done, its promise is ended,
Weak and watery sets the sun,
Day and night in one mist are blended,
My harvest is done.
Weak and watery sets the sun,
Day and night in one mist are blended,
My harvest is done.
Long while running, how short when run,
Time to eternity has descended,
Timeless eternity has begun.
Time to eternity has descended,
Timeless eternity has begun.
Was it the narrow way that I wended?
Snares and pits was it mine to shun?
The scythe has fallen, so long suspended,
My harvest is done.
Snares and pits was it mine to shun?
The scythe has fallen, so long suspended,
My harvest is done.
For All.
Man's harvest is past, his summer is ended,
Hope and fear are finished at last,
Day hath descended, night hath ascended,
Man's harvest is past.
Hope and fear are finished at last,
Day hath descended, night hath ascended,
Man's harvest is past.
Time is fled that fleeted so fast:
All the unmended remains unmended,
The perfect, perfect: all lots are cast.
All the unmended remains unmended,
The perfect, perfect: all lots are cast.
Waiting till earth and ocean be rended,
Waiting for call of the trumpet blast,
Each soul at goal of that way it wended,—
Man's harvest is past.
Waiting for call of the trumpet blast,
Each soul at goal of that way it wended,—
Man's harvest is past.
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NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS CITIZENS.
“The Holy City, New Jerusalem.”
Jerusalem is built of gold,
Of crystal, pearl, and gem:
Oh fair thy lustres manifold,
Thou fair Jerusalem!
Thy citizens who walk in white
Have nought to do with day or night,
And drink the river of delight.
Of crystal, pearl, and gem:
Oh fair thy lustres manifold,
Thou fair Jerusalem!
Thy citizens who walk in white
Have nought to do with day or night,
And drink the river of delight.
Jerusalem makes melody
For simple joy of heart;
An organ of full compass she,
One-tuned thro' every part:
While not to day or night belong
Her matins and her evensong,
The one thanksgiving of her throng.
For simple joy of heart;
An organ of full compass she,
One-tuned thro' every part:
While not to day or night belong
Her matins and her evensong,
The one thanksgiving of her throng.
Jerusalem a garden is,
A garden of delight;
Leaf, flower, and fruit make fair her trees,
Which see not day or night:
Beside her River clear and calm
The Tree of Life grows with the Palm,
For triumph and for food and balm.
A garden of delight;
Leaf, flower, and fruit make fair her trees,
Which see not day or night:
Beside her River clear and calm
The Tree of Life grows with the Palm,
For triumph and for food and balm.
Jerusalem, where song nor gem
Nor fruit nor waters cease,
God bring us to Jerusalem,
God bring us home in peace;
The strong who stand, the weak who fall,
The first and last, the great and small,
Home one by one, home one and all.
Nor fruit nor waters cease,
God bring us to Jerusalem,
God bring us home in peace;
The strong who stand, the weak who fall,
The first and last, the great and small,
Home one by one, home one and all.
[When wickedness is broken as a tree]
When wickedness is broken as a treeParadise comes to light, ah holy land!
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And barrenness is banished with the sea.
Its bulwarks are salvation fully manned,
All gems it hath for glad variety,
And pearls for pureness radiant glimmeringly,
And gold for grandeur where all good is grand.
An inner ring of saints meets linked above,
And linked of angels is an outer ring;
For voice of waters or for thunders' voice
Lo! harps and songs wherewith all saints rejoice,
And all the trembling there of any string
Is but a trembling of enraptured love.
[Jerusalem of fire]
Jerusalem of fire
And gold and pearl and gem,
Saints flock to fill thy choir,
Jerusalem.
And gold and pearl and gem,
Saints flock to fill thy choir,
Jerusalem.
Lo, thrones thou hast for them;
Desirous they desire
Thy harp, thy diadem,
Desirous they desire
Thy harp, thy diadem,
Thy bridal white attire,
A palm-branch from thy stem:
Thy holiness their hire,
Jerusalem.
A palm-branch from thy stem:
Thy holiness their hire,
Jerusalem.
“She shall be brought unto the King.”
The King's Daughter is all glorious within,
Her clothing of wrought gold sets forth her bliss;
Where the endless choruses of heaven begin
The King's Daughter is;
Her clothing of wrought gold sets forth her bliss;
Where the endless choruses of heaven begin
The King's Daughter is;
Perfect her notes in the perfect harmonies;
With tears wiped away, no conscience of sin,
Loss forgotten and sorrowful memories;
With tears wiped away, no conscience of sin,
Loss forgotten and sorrowful memories;
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Alight with Cherubin, afire with Seraphin,
Lily for pureness, rose for charities,
With joy won and with joy evermore to win,
The King's Daughter is.
Lily for pureness, rose for charities,
With joy won and with joy evermore to win,
The King's Daughter is.
[Who is this that cometh up not alone]
Who is this that cometh up not alone
From the fiery-flying-serpent wilderness,
Leaning upon her own Beloved One:
Who is this:
From the fiery-flying-serpent wilderness,
Leaning upon her own Beloved One:
Who is this:
Lo, the King of king's daughter, a high princess,
Going home as bride to her Husband's Throne,
Virgin queen in perfected loveliness.
Going home as bride to her Husband's Throne,
Virgin queen in perfected loveliness.
Her eyes a dove's eyes and her voice a dove's moan,
She shows like a full moon for heavenliness:
Eager saints and angels ask in heaven's zone,
Who is this?
She shows like a full moon for heavenliness:
Eager saints and angels ask in heaven's zone,
Who is this?
[Who sits with the King in His Throne? Not a slave but a Bride]
Who sits with the King in His Throne? Not a slave but a Bride,
With this King of all Greatness and Grace Who reigns not alone;
His Glory her glory, where glorious she glows at His side
Who sits with the King in His Throne.
With this King of all Greatness and Grace Who reigns not alone;
His Glory her glory, where glorious she glows at His side
Who sits with the King in His Throne.
She came from dim uttermost depths which no Angel hath known,
Leviathan's whirlpool and Dragon's dominion worldwide,
From the frost or the fire to Paradisiacal zone.
Leviathan's whirlpool and Dragon's dominion worldwide,
From the frost or the fire to Paradisiacal zone.
Lo, she is fair as a dove, silvery, golden, dove-eyed:
Lo, Dragon laments and Death laments, for their prey is flown:
She dwells in the Vision of Peace, and her peace shall abide
Who sits with the King in His Throne.
Lo, Dragon laments and Death laments, for their prey is flown:
She dwells in the Vision of Peace, and her peace shall abide
Who sits with the King in His Throne.
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Antipas.
Hidden from the darkness of our mortal sight,Hidden in the Paradise of lovely light,
Hidden in God's Presence, worshipped face to face,
Hidden in the sanctuary of Christ's embrace.
Up, O Wills! to track him home among the bless'd;
Up, O Hearts! to know him in the joy of rest;
Where no darkness more shall hide him from our sight,
Where we shall be love with love, and light with light,
Worshipping our God together face to face,
Wishless in the sanctuary of Christ's embrace.
“Beautiful for situation.”
A lovely city in a lovely land,Whose citizens are lovely, and whose King
Is Very Love; to Whom all Angels sing;
To Whom all saints sing crowned, their sacred band
Saluting Love with palm-branch in their hand:
Thither all doves on gold or silver wing
Flock home thro' agate windows glistering
Set wide, and where pearl gates wide open stand.
A bower of roses is not half so sweet,
A cave of diamonds doth not glitter so,
Nor Lebanon is fruitful set thereby:
And thither thou, beloved, and thither I
May set our heart and set our face and go,
Faint yet pursuing, home on tireless feet.
[Lord, by what inconceivable dim road]
Lord, by what inconceivable dim roadThou leadest man on footsore pilgrimage!
Weariness is his rest from stage to stage,
Brief halting-places are his sole abode.
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Thro' deserts where all doleful creatures rage;
Onward from year to year, from age to age,
He groans and totters onward with his load.
Behold how inconceivable his way;
How tenfold inconceivable the goal,
His goal of hope deferred, his promised peace:
Yea, but behold him sitting down at ease,
Refreshed in body and refreshed in soul,
At rest from labour on the Sabbath Day.
“As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”
“Golden haired, lily white,
Will you pluck me lilies?
Or will you show me where they grow,
Show where the limpid rill is?
But is your hair of gold or light,
And is your foot of flake or fire,
And have you wings rolled up from sight
And songs to slake desire?”
Will you pluck me lilies?
Or will you show me where they grow,
Show where the limpid rill is?
But is your hair of gold or light,
And is your foot of flake or fire,
And have you wings rolled up from sight
And songs to slake desire?”
“I pluck fresh flowers of Paradise,
Lilies and roses red,
A bending sceptre for my hand,
A crown to crown my head.
I sing my songs, I pluck my flowers
Sweet-scented from their fragrant trees;
I sing, we sing, amid the bowers
And gather palm-branches.”
Lilies and roses red,
A bending sceptre for my hand,
A crown to crown my head.
I sing my songs, I pluck my flowers
Sweet-scented from their fragrant trees;
I sing, we sing, amid the bowers
And gather palm-branches.”
“Is there a path to Heaven
My stumbling foot may tread?
And will you show that way to go,
That bower and blossom bed?”
“The path to Heaven is steep and straight
And scorched, but ends in shade of trees,
Where yet a while we sing and wait
And gather palm-branches.”
My stumbling foot may tread?
And will you show that way to go,
That bower and blossom bed?”
“The path to Heaven is steep and straight
And scorched, but ends in shade of trees,
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And gather palm-branches.”
[Cast down but not destroyed, chastened not slain]
Cast down but not destroyed, chastened not slain:Thy Saints have lived that life, but how can I?
I, who thro' dread of death do daily die
By daily foretaste of an unfelt pain.
Lo, I depart who shall not come again;
Lo, as a shadow I am flitting by;
As a leaf trembling, as a wheel I fly,
While death flies faster and my flight is vain.
Chastened not slain, cast down but not destroyed:—
If thus Thy Saints have struggled home to peace,
Why should not I take heart to be as they?
They too pent passions in a house of clay,
Fear and desire, and pangs and ecstasies;
Yea, thus they joyed who now are overjoyed.
[Lift up thine eyes to seek the invisible]
Lift up thine eyes to seek the invisible:Stir up thy heart to choose the still unseen:
Strain up thy hope in glad perpetual green
To scale the exceeding height where all saints dwell.
—Saints, it is well with you?—Yea, it is well.—
Where they have reaped, by faith kneel thou to glean:
Because they stooped so low to reap, they lean
Now over golden harps unspeakable.
—But thou purblind and deafened, knowest thou
Those glorious beauties unexperienced
By ear or eye or by heart hitherto?—
I know Whom I have trusted: wherefore now
All amiable, accessible tho' fenced,
Golden Jerusalem floats full in view.
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“Love is strong as Death.”
As flames that consume the mountains, as winds that coerce the sea,
Thy men of renown show forth Thy might in the clutch of death:
Down they go into silence, yet the Trump of the Jubilee
Swells not Thy praise as swells it the breathless pause of their breath.
Thy men of renown show forth Thy might in the clutch of death:
Down they go into silence, yet the Trump of the Jubilee
Swells not Thy praise as swells it the breathless pause of their breath.
What is the flame of their fire, if so I may catch the flame;
What the strength of their strength, if also I may wax strong?
The flaming fire of their strength is the love of Jesu's Name,
In Whom their death is life, their silence utters a song.
What the strength of their strength, if also I may wax strong?
The flaming fire of their strength is the love of Jesu's Name,
In Whom their death is life, their silence utters a song.
“Let them rejoice in their beds.”
Crimson as the rubies, crimson as the roses,
Crimson as the sinking sun,
Singing on his crimsoned bed each saint reposes,
Fought his fight, his battle won;
Till the rosy east the day of days discloses,
All his work, save waiting, done.
Crimson as the sinking sun,
Singing on his crimsoned bed each saint reposes,
Fought his fight, his battle won;
Till the rosy east the day of days discloses,
All his work, save waiting, done.
Far above the stars, while underneath the daisies,
Resting, for his race is run,
Unto Thee his heart each quiet saint upraises,
God the Father, Spirit, Son;
Unto Thee his heart, unto Thee his praises,
O Lord God, the Three in One.
Resting, for his race is run,
Unto Thee his heart each quiet saint upraises,
God the Father, Spirit, Son;
Unto Thee his heart, unto Thee his praises,
O Lord God, the Three in One.
[Slain in their high places: fallen on rest]
Slain in their high places: fallen on rest
Where the eternal peace lights up their faces,
In God's sacred acre breast to breast:—
Slain in their high places.
Where the eternal peace lights up their faces,
In God's sacred acre breast to breast:—
Slain in their high places.
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From all tribes, all families, all races,
Gathered home together; east or west
Sending home its tale of gifts and graces.
Gathered home together; east or west
Sending home its tale of gifts and graces.
Twine, oh twine, heaven's amaranth for their crest,
Raise their praise while home their triumph paces;
Kings by their own King of kings confessed,
Slain in their high places.
Raise their praise while home their triumph paces;
Kings by their own King of kings confessed,
Slain in their high places.
“What hath God wrought!”
The shout of a King is among them. One day may I be
Of that perfect communion of lovers contented and free
In the land that is very far off, and far off from the sea.
Of that perfect communion of lovers contented and free
In the land that is very far off, and far off from the sea.
The shout of the King is among them. One King and one song,
One thunder of manifold voices harmonious and strong,
One King and one love, and one shout of one worshipping throng.
One thunder of manifold voices harmonious and strong,
One King and one love, and one shout of one worshipping throng.
“Before the Throne, and before the Lamb.”
As the voice of many waters all saints sing as one,
As the voice of an unclouded thundering;
Unswayed by the changing moon and unswayed by the sun,
As the voice of many waters all saints sing.
As the voice of an unclouded thundering;
Unswayed by the changing moon and unswayed by the sun,
As the voice of many waters all saints sing.
Circling round the rainbow of their perfect ring,
Twelve thousand times twelve thousand voices in unison
Swell the triumph, swell the praise of Christ the King.
Twelve thousand times twelve thousand voices in unison
Swell the triumph, swell the praise of Christ the King.
Where raiment is white of blood-steeped linen slowly spun,
Where crowns are golden of Love's own largessing,
Where eternally the ecstasy is but begun,
As the voice of many waters all saints sing.
Where crowns are golden of Love's own largessing,
Where eternally the ecstasy is but begun,
As the voice of many waters all saints sing.
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“He shall go no more out.”
Once within, within for evermore:
There the long beatitudes begin:
Overflows the still unwasting store,
Once within.
There the long beatitudes begin:
Overflows the still unwasting store,
Once within.
Left without are death and doubt and sin;
All man wrestled with and all he bore,
Man who saved his life, skin after skin.
All man wrestled with and all he bore,
Man who saved his life, skin after skin.
Blow the trumpet-blast unheard before,
Shout the unheard-of shout for these who win,
These, who cast their crowns on Heaven's high floor
Once within.
Shout the unheard-of shout for these who win,
These, who cast their crowns on Heaven's high floor
Once within.
[Yea, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection!]
Yea, blessed and holy is he that hath part in the First Resurrection!
We mark well his bulwarks, we set up his tokens, we gaze, even we,
On this lustre of God and of Christ, this creature of flawless perfection:
Yea, blessed and holy is he.
We mark well his bulwarks, we set up his tokens, we gaze, even we,
On this lustre of God and of Christ, this creature of flawless perfection:
Yea, blessed and holy is he.
But what? an offscouring of earth, a wreck from the turbulent sea,
A bloodstone unflinchingly hewn for the Temple's eternal erection,
One scattered and peeled, one sifted and chastened and scourged and set free?
A bloodstone unflinchingly hewn for the Temple's eternal erection,
One scattered and peeled, one sifted and chastened and scourged and set free?
Yea, this is that worshipful stone of the Wise Master Builder's election,
Yea, this is that King and that Priest where all Hallows bow down the knee,
Yea, this man set nigh to the Throne is Jonathan of David's delection,
Yea, blessed and holy is he.
Yea, this is that King and that Priest where all Hallows bow down the knee,
Yea, this man set nigh to the Throne is Jonathan of David's delection,
Yea, blessed and holy is he.
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[The joy of Saints, like incense turned to fire]
The joy of Saints, like incense turned to fireIn golden censers, soars acceptable;
And high their heavenly hallelujahs swell
Desirous still with still-fulfilled desire.
Sweet thrill the harpstrings of the heavenly choir,
Most sweet their voice while love is all they tell;
Where love is all in all, and all is well
Because their work is love and love their hire.
All robed in white and all with palm in hand,
Crowns too they have of gold and thrones of gold;
The street is golden which their feet have trod,
Or on a sea of glass and fire they stand:
And none of them is young, and none is old,
Except as perfect by the Will of God.
[What are these lovely ones, yea, what are these?]
What are these lovely ones, yea, what are these?Lo, these are they who for pure love of Christ
Stripped off the trammels of soft silken ease,
Beggaring themselves betimes, to be sufficed
Throughout heaven's one eternal day of peace:
By golden streets, thro' gates of pearl unpriced,
They entered on the joys that will not cease,
And found again all firstfruits sacrificed.
And wherefore have you harps, and wherefore palms,
And wherefore crowns, O ye who walk in white?
Because our happy hearts are chanting psalms,
Endless Te Deum for the ended fight;
While thro' the everlasting lapse of calms
We cast our crowns before the Lamb our Might.
“The General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn.”
Bring me to see, Lord, bring me yet to seeThose nations of Thy glory and Thy grace
Who splendid in Thy splendour worship Thee.
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Raptures and voices one while manifold,
Love and are well-beloved the ransomed race:—
Great mitred priests, great kings in crowns of gold,
Patriarchs who head the army of their sons,
Matrons and mothers by their own extolled,
Wise and most harmless holy little ones,
Virgins who, making merry, lead the dance,
Full-breathed victorious racers from all runs,
Home-comers out of every change and chance,
Hermits restored to social neighbourhood,
Aspects which reproduce One Countenance,
Life-losers with their losses all made good,
All blessed hungry and athirst sufficed,
All who bore crosses round the Holy Rood,
Friends, brethren, sisters, of Lord Jesus Christ.
“Every one that is perfect shall be as his master.”
How can one man, how can all men,
How can we be like St. Paul,
Like St. John, or like St. Peter,
Like the least of all
Blessed Saints? for we are small.
How can we be like St. Paul,
Like St. John, or like St. Peter,
Like the least of all
Blessed Saints? for we are small.
Love can make us like St. Peter,
Love can make us like St. Paul,
Love can make us like the blessed
Bosom friend of all,
Great St. John, tho' we are small.
Love can make us like St. Paul,
Love can make us like the blessed
Bosom friend of all,
Great St. John, tho' we are small.
Love which clings and trusts and worships,
Love which rises from a fall,
Love which, prompting glad obedience,
Labours most of all,
Love makes great the great and small.
Love which rises from a fall,
Love which, prompting glad obedience,
Labours most of all,
Love makes great the great and small.
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[“As dying, and behold we live!”]
“As dying, and behold we live!”
So live the Saints while time is flying;
Make all they make, give all they give,
As dying;
So live the Saints while time is flying;
Make all they make, give all they give,
As dying;
Bear all they bear without replying;
They grieve as tho' they did not grieve,
Uplifting praise with prayer and sighing.
They grieve as tho' they did not grieve,
Uplifting praise with prayer and sighing.
Patient thro' life's long-drawn reprieve,
Aloof from strife, at peace from crying,
The morrow to its day they leave,
As dying.
Aloof from strife, at peace from crying,
The morrow to its day they leave,
As dying.
“So great a cloud of Witnesses.”
I think of the saints I have known, and lift up mine eyes
To the far-away home of beautiful Paradise,
Where the song of saints gives voice to an undividing sea
On whose plain their feet stand firm while they keep their jubilee.
To the far-away home of beautiful Paradise,
Where the song of saints gives voice to an undividing sea
On whose plain their feet stand firm while they keep their jubilee.
As the sound of waters their voice, as the sound of thunderings,
While they all at once rejoice, while all sing and while each one sings;
Where more saints flock in, and more, and yet more, and again yet more,
And not one turns back to depart thro' the open entrance-door.
While they all at once rejoice, while all sing and while each one sings;
Where more saints flock in, and more, and yet more, and again yet more,
And not one turns back to depart thro' the open entrance-door.
O sights of our lovely earth, O sound of our earthly sea,
Speak to me of Paradise, of all blessed saints to me:
Or keep silence touching them, and speak to my heart alone
Of the Saint of saints, the King of kings, the Lamb on the Throne.
Speak to me of Paradise, of all blessed saints to me:
Or keep silence touching them, and speak to my heart alone
Of the Saint of saints, the King of kings, the Lamb on the Throne.
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[Our Mothers, lovely women pitiful]
Our Mothers, lovely women pitiful;Our Sisters, gracious in their life and death;
To us each unforgotten memory saith:
“Learn as we learned in life's sufficient school,
Work as we worked in patience of our rule,
Walk as we walked, much less by sight than faith,
Hope as we hoped, despite our slips and scathe,
Fearful in joy and confident in dule.”
I know not if they see us or can see;
But if they see us in our painful day,
How looking back to earth from Paradise
Do tears not gather in those loving eyes?—
Ah, happy eyes! whose tears are wiped away
Whether or not you bear to look on me.
[Safe where I cannot lie yet]
Safe where I cannot lie yet,
Safe where I hope to lie too,
Safe from the fume and the fret;
You, and you,
Whom I never forget.
Safe where I hope to lie too,
Safe from the fume and the fret;
You, and you,
Whom I never forget.
Safe from the frost and the snow,
Safe from the storm and the sun,
Safe where the seeds wait to grow
One by one
And to come back in blow.
Safe from the storm and the sun,
Safe where the seeds wait to grow
One by one
And to come back in blow.
“Is it well with the child?”
Lying a-dying.Have done with vain sighing:
Life not lost but treasured,
God Almighty pleasured,
God's daughter fetched and carried,
Christ's bride betrothed and married.
Our tender little dove
Meek-eyed and simple,
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There shall she walk in white,
Where God shall be the Light,
And God the Temple.
[Dear Angels and dear disembodied Saints]
Dear Angels and dear disembodied SaintsUnseen around us, worshipping in rest,
May wonder that man's heart so often faints
And his steps lag along the heavenly quest,
What while his foolish fancy moulds and paints
A fonder hope than all they prove for best;
A lying hope which undermines and taints
His soul, as sin and sloth make manifest.
Sloth, and a lie, and sin: shall these suffice
The unfathomable heart of craving man,
That heart which being a deep calls to the deep?
Behold how many like us rose and ran
When Christ, life-giver, roused them from their sleep
To rise and run and rest in Paradise!
“To every seed his own body.”
Bone to his bone, grain to his grain of dust:A numberless reunion shall make whole
Each blessed body for its blessed soul,
Refashioning the aspects of the just.
Each saint who died must live afresh, and must
Ascend resplendent in the aureole
Of his own proper glory to his goal,
As seeds their proper bodies all upthrust.
Each with his own not with another's grace,
Each with his own not with another's heart,
Each with his own not with another's face,
Each dove-like soul mounts to his proper place:—
O faces unforgotten! if to part
Wrung sore, what will it be to re-embrace?
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“What good shall my life do me?”
Have dead men long to wait?—
There is a certain term
For their bodies to the worm
And their souls at heaven gate.
Dust to dust, clod to clod,
These precious things of God,
Trampled underfoot by man
And beast the appointed years.—
For their bodies to the worm
And their souls at heaven gate.
Dust to dust, clod to clod,
These precious things of God,
Trampled underfoot by man
And beast the appointed years.—
Their longest life was but a span
For change and smiles and tears.
Is it worth while to live,
Rejoice and grieve,
Hope, fear, and die?
Man with man, truth with lie,
The slow show dwindles by:
At last what shall we have
Besides a grave?—
For change and smiles and tears.
Is it worth while to live,
Rejoice and grieve,
Hope, fear, and die?
Man with man, truth with lie,
The slow show dwindles by:
At last what shall we have
Besides a grave?—
Lies and shows no more,
No fear, no pain,
But after hope and sleep
Dear joys again.
Those who sowed shall reap:
Those who bore
The Cross shall wear the Crown:
Those who clomb the steep
There shall sit down.
No fear, no pain,
But after hope and sleep
Dear joys again.
Those who sowed shall reap:
Those who bore
The Cross shall wear the Crown:
Those who clomb the steep
There shall sit down.
The Shepherd of the sheep
Feeds His flock there,
In watered pastures fair
They rest and leap.
“Is it worth while to live?”
Be of good cheer:
Love casts out fear:
Rise up, achieve.
Feeds His flock there,
In watered pastures fair
They rest and leap.
“Is it worth while to live?”
Be of good cheer:
Love casts out fear:
Rise up, achieve.
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SONGS FOR STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS.
“Her Seed; It shall bruise thy head.”
Astonished Heaven looked on when man was made,
When fallen man reproved seemed half forgiven;
Surely that oracle of hope first said,
Astonished Heaven.
When fallen man reproved seemed half forgiven;
Surely that oracle of hope first said,
Astonished Heaven.
Even so while one by one lost souls are shriven,
A mighty multitude of quickened dead;
Christ's love outnumbering ten times sevenfold seven.
A mighty multitude of quickened dead;
Christ's love outnumbering ten times sevenfold seven.
Even so while man still tosses high his head,
While still the All-Holy Spirit's strife is striven;—
Till one last trump shake earth, and undismayed
Astonished Heaven.
While still the All-Holy Spirit's strife is striven;—
Till one last trump shake earth, and undismayed
Astonished Heaven.
“Judge nothing before the time.”
Love understands the mystery, whereof
We can but spell a surface history:
Love knows, remembers: let us trust in Love:
Love understands the mystery.
We can but spell a surface history:
Love knows, remembers: let us trust in Love:
Love understands the mystery.
Love weighs the event, the long pre-history,
Measures the depth beneath, the height above,
The mystery, with the ante-mystery.
Measures the depth beneath, the height above,
The mystery, with the ante-mystery.
To love and to be grieved befits a dove
Silently telling her bead-history:
Trust all to Love, be patient and approve:
Love understands the mystery.
Silently telling her bead-history:
Trust all to Love, be patient and approve:
Love understands the mystery.
[How great is little man!]
How great is little man!
Sun, moon, and stars respond to him,
Shine or grow dim
Harmonious with his span.
Sun, moon, and stars respond to him,
Shine or grow dim
Harmonious with his span.
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How little is great man!
More changeable than changeful moon,
Nor half in tune
With Heaven's harmonious plan.
More changeable than changeful moon,
Nor half in tune
With Heaven's harmonious plan.
Ah, rich man! ah, poor man!
Make ready for the testing day
When wastes away
What bears not fire or fan.
Make ready for the testing day
When wastes away
What bears not fire or fan.
Thou heir of all things, man,
Pursue the saints by heavenward track:
They looked not back;
Run thou, as erst they ran.
Pursue the saints by heavenward track:
They looked not back;
Run thou, as erst they ran.
Little and great is man:
Great if he will, or if he will
A pigmy still;
For what he will he can.
Great if he will, or if he will
A pigmy still;
For what he will he can.
[Man's life is but a working day]
Man's life is but a working dayWhose tasks are set aright:
A time to work, a time to pray,
And then a quiet night.
And then, please God, a quiet night
Where palms are green and robes are white;
A long-drawn breath, a balm for sorrow,
And all things lovely on the morrow.
[If not with hope of life]
If not with hope of life,
Begin with fear of death:
Strive the tremendous life-long strife
Breath after breath.
Begin with fear of death:
Strive the tremendous life-long strife
Breath after breath.
Bleed on beneath the rod;
Weep on until thou see;
Turn fear and hope to love of God
Who loveth thee.
Weep on until thou see;
Turn fear and hope to love of God
Who loveth thee.
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Turn all to love, poor soul;
Be love thy watch and ward;
Be love thy starting-point, thy goal,
And thy reward.
Be love thy watch and ward;
Be love thy starting-point, thy goal,
And thy reward.
“The day is at hand.”
Watch yet a while,
Weep till that day shall dawn when thou shalt smile:
Watch till the day
When all save only Love shall pass away.
Weep till that day shall dawn when thou shalt smile:
Watch till the day
When all save only Love shall pass away.
Then Love rejoicing shall forget to weep,
Shall hope or fear no more, or watch or sleep,
But only love and stint not, deep beyond deep.
Now we sow love in tears, but then shall reap.
Have patience as True Love's own flock of sheep:
Have patience with His Love
Who served for us, Who reigns for us above.
Shall hope or fear no more, or watch or sleep,
But only love and stint not, deep beyond deep.
Now we sow love in tears, but then shall reap.
Have patience as True Love's own flock of sheep:
Have patience with His Love
Who served for us, Who reigns for us above.
“Endure hardness.”
A cold wind stirs the blackthorn
To burgeon and to blow,
Besprinkling half-green hedges
With flakes and sprays of snow.
To burgeon and to blow,
Besprinkling half-green hedges
With flakes and sprays of snow.
Thro' coldness and thro' keenness,
Dear hearts, take comfort so:
Somewhere or other doubtless
These make the blackthorn blow.
Dear hearts, take comfort so:
Somewhere or other doubtless
These make the blackthorn blow.
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“Whither the Tribes go up, even the Tribes of the Lord.”
Light is our sorrow for it ends tomorrow,
Light is our death which cannot hold us fast;
So brief a sorrow can be scarcely sorrow,
Or death be death so quickly past.
Light is our death which cannot hold us fast;
So brief a sorrow can be scarcely sorrow,
Or death be death so quickly past.
One night, no more, of pain that turns to pleasure,
One night, no more, of weeping weeping sore;
And then the heaped-up measure beyond measure,
In quietness for evermore.
One night, no more, of weeping weeping sore;
And then the heaped-up measure beyond measure,
In quietness for evermore.
Our face is set like flint against our trouble,
Yet many things there are which comfort us;
This bubble is a rainbow-coloured bubble,
This bubble-life tumultuous.
Yet many things there are which comfort us;
This bubble is a rainbow-coloured bubble,
This bubble-life tumultuous.
Our sails are set to cross the tossing river,
Our face is set to reach Jerusalem;
We toil awhile, but then we rest for ever,
Sing with all Saints and rest with them.
Our face is set to reach Jerusalem;
We toil awhile, but then we rest for ever,
Sing with all Saints and rest with them.
[Where never tempest heaveth]
Where never tempest heaveth,
Nor sorrow grieveth,
Nor death bereaveth,
Nor hope deceiveth,
Sleep.
Nor sorrow grieveth,
Nor death bereaveth,
Nor hope deceiveth,
Sleep.
Where never shame bewaileth,
Nor serpent traileth,
Nor death prevaileth,
Nor harvest faileth,
Reap.
Nor serpent traileth,
Nor death prevaileth,
Nor harvest faileth,
Reap.
[Marvel of marvels, if I myself shall behold]
Marvel of marvels, if I myself shall behold
With mine own eyes my King in His city of gold;
Where the least of lambs is spotless white in the fold,
Where the least and last of saints in spotless white is stoled,
Where the dimmest head beyond a moon is aureoled.
O saints, my beloved, now mouldering to mould in the mould,
Shall I see you lift your heads, see your cerements unrolled,
See with these very eyes? who now in darkness and cold
Tremble for the midnight cry, the rapture, the tale untold,
“The Bridegroom cometh, cometh, His Bride to enfold.”
With mine own eyes my King in His city of gold;
Where the least of lambs is spotless white in the fold,
Where the least and last of saints in spotless white is stoled,
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O saints, my beloved, now mouldering to mould in the mould,
Shall I see you lift your heads, see your cerements unrolled,
See with these very eyes? who now in darkness and cold
Tremble for the midnight cry, the rapture, the tale untold,
“The Bridegroom cometh, cometh, His Bride to enfold.”
Cold it is, my beloved, since your funeral bell was tolled:
Cold it is, O my King, how cold alone on the wold.
Cold it is, O my King, how cold alone on the wold.
“What is that to thee? follow thou me.”
Lie still, my restive heart, lie still:
God's Word to thee saith, “Wait and bear.”
The good which He appoints is good,
The good which He denies were ill:
Yea, subtle comfort is thy care,
Thy hurt a help not understood.
God's Word to thee saith, “Wait and bear.”
The good which He appoints is good,
The good which He denies were ill:
Yea, subtle comfort is thy care,
Thy hurt a help not understood.
“Friend, go up higher,” to one: to one,
“Friend, enter thou My joy,” He saith:
To one, “Be faithful unto death.”
For some a wilderness doth flower,
Or day's work in one hour is done:—
“But thou, could'st thou not watch one hour?”
“Friend, enter thou My joy,” He saith:
To one, “Be faithful unto death.”
For some a wilderness doth flower,
Or day's work in one hour is done:—
“But thou, could'st thou not watch one hour?”
Lord, I had chosen another lot,
But then I had not chosen well;
Thy choice and only Thine is good:
No different lot, search heaven or hell,
Had blessed me fully understood;
None other, which Thou orderest not.
But then I had not chosen well;
Thy choice and only Thine is good:
No different lot, search heaven or hell,
Had blessed me fully understood;
None other, which Thou orderest not.
“Worship God.”
Lord, if Thy word had been “Worship Me not,For I than thou am holier: draw not near:”
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And manifold abasement in our lot,
Our crooked ground, our thorned and thistled plot;
Envious of flawless Angels in their sphere,
Envious of brutes, and envious of the mere
Unliving and undying unbegot.
But now Thou hast said, “Worship Me, and give
Thy heart to Me, My child:” now therefore we
Think twice before we stoop to worship Thee:
We proffer half a heart while life is strong
And strung with hope; so sweet it is to live!
Wilt Thou not wait? Yea, Thou hast waited long.
“Afterward he repented, and went.”
Lord, when my heart was whole I kept it backAnd grudged to give it Thee.
Now then that it is broken, must I lack
Thy kind word “Give it Me”?
Silence would be but just, and Thou art just.
Yet since I lie here shattered in the dust,
With still an eye to lift to Thee,
A broken heart to give,
I think that Thou wilt bid me live,
And answer “Give it Me.”
“Are they not all Ministering Spirits?”
Lord, whomsoever Thou shalt send to me,
Let that same be
Mine Angel predilect:
Veiled or unveiled, benignant or austere,
Aloof or near;
Thine, therefore mine, elect.
Let that same be
Mine Angel predilect:
Veiled or unveiled, benignant or austere,
Aloof or near;
Thine, therefore mine, elect.
So may my soul nurse patience day by day,
Watch on and pray
Obedient and at peace;
Living a lonely life in hope, in faith;
Loving till death,
When life, not love, shall cease.
Watch on and pray
Obedient and at peace;
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Loving till death,
When life, not love, shall cease.
. . . . Lo, thou mine Angel with transfigured face
Brimful of grace,
Brimful of love for me!
Did I misdoubt thee all that weary while,
Thee with a smile
For me as I for thee?
Brimful of grace,
Brimful of love for me!
Did I misdoubt thee all that weary while,
Thee with a smile
For me as I for thee?
[Our life is long. Not so, wise Angels say]
Our life is long. Not so, wise Angels say
Who watch us waste it, trembling while they weigh
Against eternity one squandered day.
Who watch us waste it, trembling while they weigh
Against eternity one squandered day.
Our life is long. Not so, the Saints protest,
Filled full of consolation and of rest:
“Short ill, long good, one long unending best.”
Filled full of consolation and of rest:
“Short ill, long good, one long unending best.”
Our life is long. Christ's word sounds different:
“Night cometh: no more work when day is spent.
Repent and work today, work and repent.”
“Night cometh: no more work when day is spent.
Repent and work today, work and repent.”
Lord, make us like Thy Host who day nor night
Rest not from adoration, their delight,
Crying “Holy, Holy, Holy,” in the height.
Rest not from adoration, their delight,
Crying “Holy, Holy, Holy,” in the height.
Lord, make us like Thy Saints who wait and long
Contented: bound in hope and freed from wrong
They speed (may be) their vigil with a song.
Contented: bound in hope and freed from wrong
They speed (may be) their vigil with a song.
Lord, make us like Thyself: for thirty-three
Slow years of toil seemed not too long to Thee,
That where Thou art, there Thy Beloved might be.
Slow years of toil seemed not too long to Thee,
That where Thou art, there Thy Beloved might be.
[Lord, what have I to offer? sickening fear]
Lord, what have I to offer? sickening fear
And a heart-breaking loss.
Are these the cross Thou givest me? then dear
I will account this cross.
And a heart-breaking loss.
Are these the cross Thou givest me? then dear
I will account this cross.
If this is all I have, accept even this
Poor priceless offering,
A quaking heart with all that therein is,
O Thou my thorn-crowned King.
Poor priceless offering,
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O Thou my thorn-crowned King.
Accept the whole, my God, accept my heart
And its own love within:
Wilt Thou accept us and not sift apart?
—Only sift out my sin.
And its own love within:
Wilt Thou accept us and not sift apart?
—Only sift out my sin.
[Joy is but sorrow]
Joy is but sorrow,
While we know
It ends tomorrow:—
Even so!
Joy with lifted veil
Shows a face as pale
As the fair changing moon so fair and frail.
While we know
It ends tomorrow:—
Even so!
Joy with lifted veil
Shows a face as pale
As the fair changing moon so fair and frail.
Pain is but pleasure,
If we know
It heaps up treasure:—
Even so!
Turn, transfigured Pain,
Sweetheart, turn again,
For fair thou art as moonrise after rain.
If we know
It heaps up treasure:—
Even so!
Turn, transfigured Pain,
Sweetheart, turn again,
For fair thou art as moonrise after rain.
[Can I know it?—Nay.—]
Can I know it?—Nay.—
Shall I know it?—Yea,
When all mists have cleared away
For ever and aye.—
Shall I know it?—Yea,
When all mists have cleared away
For ever and aye.—
Why not then today?—
Who hath said thee nay?
Lift a hopeful heart and pray
In a humble way.—
Who hath said thee nay?
Lift a hopeful heart and pray
In a humble way.—
Other hearts are gay.—
Ask not joy today:
Toil today along thy way
Keeping grudge at bay.—
Ask not joy today:
Toil today along thy way
Keeping grudge at bay.—
On a past May-day
Flowers pranked all the way;
Nightingales sang out their say
On a night of May.—
Flowers pranked all the way;
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On a night of May.—
Dost thou covet May
On an Autumn day?
Foolish memory saith its say
Of sweets past away.—
On an Autumn day?
Foolish memory saith its say
Of sweets past away.—
Gone the bloom of May,
Autumn beareth bay:
Flowerless wreath for head grown grey
Seemly were today.—
Autumn beareth bay:
Flowerless wreath for head grown grey
Seemly were today.—
Dost thou covet bay?
Ask it not today:
Rather for a palm-branch pray;
None will say thee nay.
Ask it not today:
Rather for a palm-branch pray;
None will say thee nay.
“When my heart is vexed I will complain.”
“The fields are white to harvest, look and see,
Are white abundantly.
The full-orbed harvest moon shines clear,
The harvest time draws near,
Be of good cheer.”
Are white abundantly.
The full-orbed harvest moon shines clear,
The harvest time draws near,
Be of good cheer.”
“Ah, woe is me!
I have no heart for harvest time,
Grown sick with hope deferred from chime to chime.”
I have no heart for harvest time,
Grown sick with hope deferred from chime to chime.”
“But Christ can give thee heart Who loveth thee:
Can set thee in the eternal ecstasy
Of His great jubilee:
Can give thee dancing heart and shining face,
And lips filled full of grace,
And pleasures as the rivers and the sea.
Who knocketh at His door
He welcomes evermore:
Kneel down before
That ever-open door
(The time is short) and smite
Thy breast, and pray with all thy might.”
Can set thee in the eternal ecstasy
Of His great jubilee:
Can give thee dancing heart and shining face,
And lips filled full of grace,
And pleasures as the rivers and the sea.
Who knocketh at His door
He welcomes evermore:
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That ever-open door
(The time is short) and smite
Thy breast, and pray with all thy might.”
“What shall I say?”
“Nay, pray.
Tho' one but say ‘Thy Will be done,’
He hath not lost his day
At set of sun.”
“Nay, pray.
Tho' one but say ‘Thy Will be done,’
He hath not lost his day
At set of sun.”
“Praying always.”
After midnight, in the dark
The clock strikes one,
New day has begun.
Look up and hark!
With singing heart forestall the carolling lark.
The clock strikes one,
New day has begun.
Look up and hark!
With singing heart forestall the carolling lark.
After mid-day, in the light
The clock strikes one,
Day-fall has begun.
Cast up, set right
The day's account against the on-coming night.
The clock strikes one,
Day-fall has begun.
Cast up, set right
The day's account against the on-coming night.
After noon and night, one day
For ever one
Ends not, once begun.
Whither away,
O brothers and O sisters? Pause and pray.
For ever one
Ends not, once begun.
Whither away,
O brothers and O sisters? Pause and pray.
“As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”
Day that hath no tinge of night,
Night that hath no tinge of day,
These at last will come to sight
Not to fade away.
Night that hath no tinge of day,
These at last will come to sight
Not to fade away.
This is twilight that we know,
Scarcely night and scarcely day;
This hath been from long ago
Shed around man's way:
Scarcely night and scarcely day;
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Shed around man's way:
Step by step to utter night,
Step by step to perfect day,
To the Left Hand or the Right
Leading all away.
Step by step to perfect day,
To the Left Hand or the Right
Leading all away.
This is twilight: be it so;
Suited to our strength our day:
Let us follow on to know,
Patient by the way.
Suited to our strength our day:
Let us follow on to know,
Patient by the way.
[A heavy heart, if ever heart was heavy]
A heavy heart, if ever heart was heavy,
I offer Thee this heavy heart of me.
Are such as this the hearts Thou art fain to levy
To do and dare for Thee, to bleed for Thee?
Ah, blessed heaviness, if such they be!
I offer Thee this heavy heart of me.
Are such as this the hearts Thou art fain to levy
To do and dare for Thee, to bleed for Thee?
Ah, blessed heaviness, if such they be!
Time was I bloomed with blossom and stood leafy
How long before the fruit, if fruit there be:
Lord, if by bearing fruit my heart grows heavy,
Leafless and bloomless yet accept of me
The stripped fruit-bearing heart I offer Thee.
How long before the fruit, if fruit there be:
Lord, if by bearing fruit my heart grows heavy,
Leafless and bloomless yet accept of me
The stripped fruit-bearing heart I offer Thee.
Lifted to Thee my heart weighs not so heavy,
It leaps and lightens lifted up to Thee;
It sings, it hopes to sing amid the bevy
Of thousand thousand choirs that sing, and see
Thy Face, me loving, for Thou lovest me.
It leaps and lightens lifted up to Thee;
It sings, it hopes to sing amid the bevy
Of thousand thousand choirs that sing, and see
Thy Face, me loving, for Thou lovest me.
[If love is not worth loving, then life is not worth living]
If love is not worth loving, then life is not worth living,
Nor aught is worth remembering but well forgot;
For store is not worth storing and gifts are not worth giving,
If love is not;
Nor aught is worth remembering but well forgot;
For store is not worth storing and gifts are not worth giving,
If love is not;
And idly cold is death-cold, and life-heat idly hot,
And vain is any offering and vainer our receiving,
And vanity of vanities is all our lot.
And vain is any offering and vainer our receiving,
And vanity of vanities is all our lot.
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Better than life's heaving heart is death's heart unheaving,
Better than the opening leaves are the leaves that rot,
For there is nothing left worth achieving or retrieving,
If love is not.
Better than the opening leaves are the leaves that rot,
For there is nothing left worth achieving or retrieving,
If love is not.
[What is it Jesus saith unto the soul?]
What is it Jesus saith unto the soul?“Take up the Cross, and come and follow Me.”
One word He saith to all men: none may be
Without a cross yet hope to touch the goal.
Then heave it bravely up, and brace thy whole
Body to bear; it will not weigh on thee
Past strength; or if it crush thee to thy knee
Take heart of grace, for grace shall be thy dole.
Give thanks today, and let tomorrow take
Heed to itself; today imports thee more,
Tomorrow may not dawn like yesterday:
Until that unknown morrow go thy way,
Suffer and work and strive for Jesus' sake:—
Who tells thee what tomorrow keeps in store?
[They lie at rest, our blessed dead]
They lie at rest, our blessed dead;
The dews drop cool above their head,
They knew not when fleet summer fled.
The dews drop cool above their head,
They knew not when fleet summer fled.
Together all, yet each alone;
Each laid at rest beneath his own
Smooth turf or white allotted stone.
Each laid at rest beneath his own
Smooth turf or white allotted stone.
When shall our slumber sink so deep,
And eyes that wept and eyes that weep
Weep not in the sufficient sleep?
And eyes that wept and eyes that weep
Weep not in the sufficient sleep?
God be with you, our great and small,
Our loves, our best beloved of all,
Our own beyond the salt sea-wall.
Our loves, our best beloved of all,
Our own beyond the salt sea-wall.
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“Ye that fear Him, both small and great.”
Great or small below,
Great or small above;
Be we Thine, whom Thou dost know
And love:
Great or small above;
Be we Thine, whom Thou dost know
And love:
First or last on earth,
First or last in Heaven;
Only weighted with Thy worth,
And shriven.
First or last in Heaven;
Only weighted with Thy worth,
And shriven.
Wise or ignorant,
Strong or weak; Amen;
Sifted now, cast down, in want:—
But then?
Strong or weak; Amen;
Sifted now, cast down, in want:—
But then?
Then,—when sun nor moon,
Time nor death, finds place,
Seeing in the eternal noon
Thy Face:
Time nor death, finds place,
Seeing in the eternal noon
Thy Face:
Then,—when tears and sighing,
Changes, sorrows, cease;
Living by Thy Life undying
In peace:
Changes, sorrows, cease;
Living by Thy Life undying
In peace:
Then,—when all creation
Keeps its jubilee,
Crowned amid Thy holy nation;
Crowned, discrowned, in adoration
Of Thee.
Keeps its jubilee,
Crowned amid Thy holy nation;
Crowned, discrowned, in adoration
Of Thee.
“Called to be Saints.”
The lowest place. Ah, Lord, how steep and high
That lowest place whereon a saint shall sit!
Which of us halting, trembling, pressing nigh,
Shall quite attain to it?
That lowest place whereon a saint shall sit!
Which of us halting, trembling, pressing nigh,
Shall quite attain to it?
308
Yet, Lord, Thou pressest nigh to hail and grace
Some happy soul, it may be still unfit
For Right Hand or for Left Hand, but whose place
Waits there prepared for it.
Some happy soul, it may be still unfit
For Right Hand or for Left Hand, but whose place
Waits there prepared for it.
[The sinner's own fault? So it was.]
The sinner's own fault? So it was.
If every own fault found us out,
Dogged us and hedged us round about,
What comfort should we take because
Not half our due we thus wrung out?
If every own fault found us out,
Dogged us and hedged us round about,
What comfort should we take because
Not half our due we thus wrung out?
Clearly his own fault. Yet I think
My fault in part, who did not pray
But lagged and would not lead the way.
I, haply, proved his missing link.
God help us both to mend and pray.
My fault in part, who did not pray
But lagged and would not lead the way.
I, haply, proved his missing link.
God help us both to mend and pray.
[Who cares for earthly bread tho' white?]
Who cares for earthly bread tho' white?Nay, heavenly sheaf of harvest corn!
Who cares for earthly crown tonight?
Nay, heavenly crown tomorrow morn!
I will not wander left or right,
The straightest road is shortest too;
And since we hold all hope in view
And triumph where is no more pain,
Tonight I bid good night to you
And bid you meet me there again.
[Laughing Life cries at the feast,—]
Laughing Life cries at the feast,—Craving Death cries at the door,—
“Fish, or fowl, or fatted beast?”
“Come with me, thy feast it o'er.”—
“Wreathe the violets.”—“Watch them fade.”—
“I am sunshine.”—“I am shade:
I am the sun-burying west.”—
“I am pleasure.”—“I am rest:
Come with me, for I am best.”
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“The end is not yet.”
Home by different ways. Yet all
Homeward bound thro' prayer and praise,
Young with old, and great with small,
Home by different ways.
Homeward bound thro' prayer and praise,
Young with old, and great with small,
Home by different ways.
Many nights and many days
Wind must bluster, rain must fall,
Quake the quicksand, shift the haze.
Wind must bluster, rain must fall,
Quake the quicksand, shift the haze.
Live hath called and death will call
Saints who praying kneel at gaze,
Ford the flood or leap the wall,
Home by different ways.
Saints who praying kneel at gaze,
Ford the flood or leap the wall,
Home by different ways.
[Who would wish back the Saints upon our rough]
Who would wish back the Saints upon our rough
Wearisome road?
Wish back a breathless soul
Just at the goal?
My soul, praise God
For all dear souls which have enough.
Wearisome road?
Wish back a breathless soul
Just at the goal?
My soul, praise God
For all dear souls which have enough.
I would not fetch one back to hope with me
A hope deferred,
To taste a cup that slips
From thirsting lips:—
Hath he not heard
And seen what was to hear and see?
A hope deferred,
To taste a cup that slips
From thirsting lips:—
Hath he not heard
And seen what was to hear and see?
How could I stand to answer the rebuke
If one should say:
“O friend of little faith,
Good was my death,
And good my day
Of rest, and good the sleep I took”?
If one should say:
“O friend of little faith,
Good was my death,
And good my day
Of rest, and good the sleep I took”?
310
“That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is Man.”
“Eye hath not seen:”—yet man hath known and weighed
A hundred thousand marvels that have been:
What is it which (the Word of Truth hath said)
Eye hath not seen?
A hundred thousand marvels that have been:
What is it which (the Word of Truth hath said)
Eye hath not seen?
“Ear hath not heard:”—yet harpings of delight,
Trumpets of triumph, song and spoken word,
Man knows them all: what lovelier, loftier might
Hath ear not heard?
Trumpets of triumph, song and spoken word,
Man knows them all: what lovelier, loftier might
Hath ear not heard?
“Nor heart conceived:”—yet man hath now desired
Beyond all reach, beyond his hope believed,
Loved beyond death: what fire shall yet be fired
No heart conceived?
Beyond all reach, beyond his hope believed,
Loved beyond death: what fire shall yet be fired
No heart conceived?
“Deep calls to deep:”—man's depth would be despair
But for God's deeper depth: we sow to reap,
Have patience, wait, betake ourselves to prayer:
Deep answereth deep.
But for God's deeper depth: we sow to reap,
Have patience, wait, betake ourselves to prayer:
Deep answereth deep.
[Of each sad word which is more sorrowful]
Of each sad word which is more sorrowful,
“Sorrow” or “Disappointment”? I have heard
Subtle inflections baffling subtlest rule,
Of each sad word.
“Sorrow” or “Disappointment”? I have heard
Subtle inflections baffling subtlest rule,
Of each sad word.
Sorrow can mourn: and lo! a mourning bird
Sings sweetly to sweet echoes of its dule,
While silent disappointment broods unstirred.
Sings sweetly to sweet echoes of its dule,
While silent disappointment broods unstirred.
Yet both nurse hope, where Penitence keeps school
Who makes fools wise and saints of them that erred:
Wise men shape stepping stone, or curb, or tool,
Of each sad word.
Who makes fools wise and saints of them that erred:
Wise men shape stepping stone, or curb, or tool,
Of each sad word.
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“I see that all things come to an end.”
I.
No more! while sun and planets fly,
And wind and storm and seasons four,
And while we live and while we die,—
No more.
And wind and storm and seasons four,
And while we live and while we die,—
No more.
Nevertheless old ocean's roar,
And wide earth's multitudinous cry,
And echo's pent reverberant store
And wide earth's multitudinous cry,
And echo's pent reverberant store
Shall hush to silence by and bye:
Ah, rosy world gone cold and hoar!
Man opes no more a mortal eye,
No more.
Ah, rosy world gone cold and hoar!
Man opes no more a mortal eye,
No more.
“But Thy Commandment is exceeding broad.”
II.
Once again to wake, nor wish to sleep;
Once again to feel, nor feel a pain!
Rouse thy soul to watch and pray and weep
Once again.
Once again to feel, nor feel a pain!
Rouse thy soul to watch and pray and weep
Once again.
Hope afresh, for hope shall not be vain:
Start afresh along the exceeding steep
Road to glory, long and rough and plain.
Start afresh along the exceeding steep
Road to glory, long and rough and plain.
Sow and reap: for while these moments creep,
Time and earth and life are on the wane:
Now, in tears; tomorrow, laugh and reap
Once again.
Time and earth and life are on the wane:
Now, in tears; tomorrow, laugh and reap
Once again.
Sursam Corda.
“Lift up your hearts.” “We lift them up.” Ah me!
I cannot, Lord, lift up my heart to Thee:
Stoop, lift it up, that where Thou art I too may be.
I cannot, Lord, lift up my heart to Thee:
Stoop, lift it up, that where Thou art I too may be.
312
“Give Me thy heart.” I would not say Thee nay,
But have no power to keep or give away
My heart: stoop, Lord, and take it to Thyself today.
But have no power to keep or give away
My heart: stoop, Lord, and take it to Thyself today.
Stoop, Lord, as once before, now once anew
Stoop, Lord, and hearken, hearken, Lord, and do,
And take my will, and take my heart, and take me too.
Stoop, Lord, and hearken, hearken, Lord, and do,
And take my will, and take my heart, and take me too.
[O ye, who are not dead and fit]
O ye, who are not dead and fit
Like blasted tree beside the pit
But for the axe that levels it,
Like blasted tree beside the pit
But for the axe that levels it,
Living show life of love, whereof
The force wields earth and heaven above:
Who knows not love begetteth love?
The force wields earth and heaven above:
Who knows not love begetteth love?
Love poises earth in space, Love rolls
Wide worlds rejoicing on their poles,
And girds them round with aureoles.
Wide worlds rejoicing on their poles,
And girds them round with aureoles.
Love lights the sun, Love thro' the dark
Lights the moon's evanescent arc,
Lights up the star, lights up the spark.
Lights the moon's evanescent arc,
Lights up the star, lights up the spark.
O ye who taste that love is sweet,
Set waymarks for all doubtful feet
That stumble on in search of it.
Set waymarks for all doubtful feet
That stumble on in search of it.
Sing notes of love: that some who hear
Far off inert may lend an ear,
Rise up and wonder and draw near.
Far off inert may lend an ear,
Rise up and wonder and draw near.
Lead life of love: that others who
Behold your life, may kindle too
With love, and cast their lot with you.
Behold your life, may kindle too
With love, and cast their lot with you.
[Where shall I find a white rose blowing?—]
Where shall I find a white rose blowing?—
Out in the garden where all sweets be.—
But out in my garden the snow was snowing
And never a white rose opened for me.
Nought but snow and a wind were blowing
And snowing.
Out in the garden where all sweets be.—
But out in my garden the snow was snowing
And never a white rose opened for me.
Nought but snow and a wind were blowing
And snowing.
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Where shall I find a blush rose blushing?—
On the garden wall or the garden bed.—
But out in my garden the rain was rushing
And never a blush rose raised its head.
Nothing glowing, flushing or blushing:
Rain rushing.
On the garden wall or the garden bed.—
But out in my garden the rain was rushing
And never a blush rose raised its head.
Nothing glowing, flushing or blushing:
Rain rushing.
Where shall I find a red rose budding?—
Out in the garden where all things grow.—
But out in my garden a flood was flooding
And never a red rose began to blow.
Out in a flooding what should be budding?
All flooding!
Out in the garden where all things grow.—
But out in my garden a flood was flooding
And never a red rose began to blow.
Out in a flooding what should be budding?
All flooding!
Now is winter and now is sorrow,
No roses but only thorns today:
Thorns will put on roses tomorrow,
Winter and sorrow scudding away.
No more winter and no more sorrow
Tomorrow.
No roses but only thorns today:
Thorns will put on roses tomorrow,
Winter and sorrow scudding away.
No more winter and no more sorrow
Tomorrow.
“Redeeming the Time.”
A life of hope deferred too often isA life of wasted opportunities;
A life of perished hope too often is
A life of all-lost opportunities:
Yet hope is but the flower and not the root,
And hope is still the flower and not the fruit;—
Arise and sow and weed: a day shall come
When also thou shalt keep thy harvest home.
“Now they desire a Better Country.”
Love said nay, while Hope kept saying
All his sweetest say,
Hope so keen to start a-maying!—
Love said nay.
All his sweetest say,
Hope so keen to start a-maying!—
Love said nay.
314
Love was bent to watch and pray;
Long the watching, long the praying;
Hope grew drowsy, pale and grey.
Long the watching, long the praying;
Hope grew drowsy, pale and grey.
Hope in dreams set off a-straying,
All his dream-world flushed by May;
While unslumbering, praying, weighing,
Love said nay.
All his dream-world flushed by May;
While unslumbering, praying, weighing,
Love said nay.
A CASTLE-BUILDER'S WORLD.
“The line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.”
Unripe harvest there hath none to reap it
From the misty gusty place,
Unripe vineyard there hath none to keep it
In unprofitable space.
Living men and women are not found there,
Only masks in flocks and shoals;
Flesh-and-bloodless hazy masks surround there,
Ever wavering orbs and poles;
Flesh-and-bloodless vapid masks abound there,
Shades of bodies without souls.
“These all wait upon Thee.”
Innocent eyes not oursAre made to look on flowers,
Eyes of small birds and insects small:
Morn after summer morn
The sweet rose on her thorn
Opens her bosom to them all.
The least and last of things
That soar on quivering wings,
Or crawl among the grass blades out of sight,
Have just as clear a right
To their appointed portion of delight
As Queens or Kings.
315
“Doeth well . . . doeth better.”
My love whose heart is tender said to me,
“A moon lacks light except her sun befriend her.
Let us keep tryst in heaven, dear Friend,” said she,
My love whose heart is tender.
“A moon lacks light except her sun befriend her.
Let us keep tryst in heaven, dear Friend,” said she,
My love whose heart is tender.
From such a loftiness no words could bend her:
Yet still she spoke of “us” and spoke as “we,”
Her hope substantial, while my hope grew slender.
Yet still she spoke of “us” and spoke as “we,”
Her hope substantial, while my hope grew slender.
Now keeps she tryst beyond earth's utmost sea,
Wholly at rest, tho' storms should toss and rend her;
And still she keeps my heart and keeps its key,
My love whose heart is tender.
Wholly at rest, tho' storms should toss and rend her;
And still she keeps my heart and keeps its key,
My love whose heart is tender.
[Our heaven must be within ourselves]
Our heaven must be within ourselves,
Our home and heaven the work of faith
All thro' this race of life which shelves
Downward to death.
Our home and heaven the work of faith
All thro' this race of life which shelves
Downward to death.
So faith shall build the boundary wall,
And hope shall plant the secret bower,
That both may show magnifical
With gem and flower.
And hope shall plant the secret bower,
That both may show magnifical
With gem and flower.
While over all a dome must spread,
And love shall be that dome above;
And deep foundations must be laid,
And these are love.
And love shall be that dome above;
And deep foundations must be laid,
And these are love.
“Vanity of Vanities.”
Of all the downfalls in the world,
The flutter of an Autumn leaf
Grows grievous by suggesting grief:
Who thought, when Spring was first unfurled,
Of this? The wide world lay empearled;
Who thought of frost that nips the world?
Sigh on, my ditty.
The flutter of an Autumn leaf
Grows grievous by suggesting grief:
Who thought, when Spring was first unfurled,
Of this? The wide world lay empearled;
Who thought of frost that nips the world?
Sigh on, my ditty.
316
There lurk a hundred subtle stings
To prick us in our daily walk:
An apple cankered on its stalk,
A robin snared for all his wings,
A voice that sang but never sings;
Yea, sight or sound or silence stings.
Kind Lord, show pity.
To prick us in our daily walk:
An apple cankered on its stalk,
A robin snared for all his wings,
A voice that sang but never sings;
Yea, sight or sound or silence stings.
Kind Lord, show pity.
[The hills are tipped with sunshine, while I walk]
The hills are tipped with sunshine, while I walk
In shadows dim and cold:
The unawakened rose sleeps on her stalk
In a bud's fold,
Until the sun flood all the world with gold.
In shadows dim and cold:
The unawakened rose sleeps on her stalk
In a bud's fold,
Until the sun flood all the world with gold.
The hills are crowned with glory, and the glow
Flows widening down apace:
Unto the sunny hill-tops I, set low,
Lift a tired face,—
Ah, happy rose, content to wait for grace!
Flows widening down apace:
Unto the sunny hill-tops I, set low,
Lift a tired face,—
Ah, happy rose, content to wait for grace!
How tired a face, how tired a brain, how tired
A heart I lift, who long
For something never felt but still desired;
Sunshine and song,
Song where the choirs of sunny heaven stand choired.
A heart I lift, who long
For something never felt but still desired;
Sunshine and song,
Song where the choirs of sunny heaven stand choired.
[Scarce tolerable life, which all life long]
Scarce tolerable life, which all life longIs dominated by one dread of death;
Is such life, life? if so, who pondereth
May call salt sweetness or call discord song.
Ah me, this solitude where swarms a throng!
Life slowly grows and dwindles breath by breath:
Death slowly grows on us; no word it saith,
Its cords all lengthened and its pillars strong.
Life dies apace, a life that but deceives:
Death reigns as tho' it lived, and yet is dead:
Where is the life that dies not but that lives?
The sweet long life, immortal, ever young,
317
Of hope, much said and much more left unsaid.
[All heaven is blazing yet]
All heaven is blazing yet
With the meridian sun:
Make haste, unshadowing sun, make haste to set;
O lifeless life, have done.
I choose what once I chose;
What once I willed, I will:
Only the heart its own bereavement knows;
O clamorous heart, lie still.
With the meridian sun:
Make haste, unshadowing sun, make haste to set;
O lifeless life, have done.
I choose what once I chose;
What once I willed, I will:
Only the heart its own bereavement knows;
O clamorous heart, lie still.
That which I chose, I choose;
That which I willed, I will;
That which I once refused, I still refuse:
O hope deferred, be still.
That which I chose and choose
And will is Jesus' Will:
He hath not lost his life who seems to lose:
O hope deferred, hope still.
That which I willed, I will;
That which I once refused, I still refuse:
O hope deferred, be still.
That which I chose and choose
And will is Jesus' Will:
He hath not lost his life who seems to lose:
O hope deferred, hope still.
“Balm in Gilead.”
Heartsease I found, where Love-lies-bleeding
Empurpled all the ground:
Whatever flowers I missed unheeding,
Heartsease I found.
Empurpled all the ground:
Whatever flowers I missed unheeding,
Heartsease I found.
Yet still my garden mound
Stood sore in need of watering, weeding,
And binding growths unbound.
Stood sore in need of watering, weeding,
And binding growths unbound.
Ah, when shades fell to light succeeding
I scarcely dared look round:
“Love-lies-bleeding” was all my pleading,
Heartsease I found.
I scarcely dared look round:
“Love-lies-bleeding” was all my pleading,
Heartsease I found.
318
“In the day of his Espousals.”
That Song of Songs which is Solomon's
Sinks and rises, and loves and longs,
Thro' temperate zones and torrid zones,
That Song of Songs.
Sinks and rises, and loves and longs,
Thro' temperate zones and torrid zones,
That Song of Songs.
Fair its floating moon with her prongs:
Love is laid for its paving stones:
Right it sings without thought of wrongs.
Love is laid for its paving stones:
Right it sings without thought of wrongs.
Doves it hath with music of moans,
Queens in throngs and damsels in throngs,
High tones and mysterious undertones,
That Song of Songs.
Queens in throngs and damsels in throngs,
High tones and mysterious undertones,
That Song of Songs.
“She came from the uttermost part of the earth.”
“The half was not told me,” said Sheba's Queen,
Weighing that wealth of wisdom and of gold:
“Thy fame falls short of this that I have seen:
The half was not told.
Weighing that wealth of wisdom and of gold:
“Thy fame falls short of this that I have seen:
The half was not told.
“Happy thy servants who stand to behold,
Stand to drink in thy gracious speech and mien;
Happy, thrice happy, the flock of thy fold.
Stand to drink in thy gracious speech and mien;
Happy, thrice happy, the flock of thy fold.
“As the darkened moon while a shadow between
Her face and her kindling sun is rolled,
I depart; but my heart keeps memory green:
The half was not told.”
Her face and her kindling sun is rolled,
I depart; but my heart keeps memory green:
The half was not told.”
[Alleluia! or Alas! my heart is crying]
Alleluia! or Alas! my heart is crying:
So yours is sighing;
Or replying with content undying,
Alleluia!
So yours is sighing;
Or replying with content undying,
Alleluia!
Alas! grieves overmuch for pain that is ending,
Hurt that is mending,
Life descending soon to be ascending,
Alleluia!
Hurt that is mending,
Life descending soon to be ascending,
Alleluia!
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[The Passion Flower hath sprung up tall]
The Passion Flower hath sprung up tall,
Hath east and west its arms outspread;
The heliotrope shoots up its head
To clear the shadow of the wall:
Down looks the Passion Flower,
The heliotrope looks upward still,
Hour by hour
On the heavenward hill.
Hath east and west its arms outspread;
The heliotrope shoots up its head
To clear the shadow of the wall:
Down looks the Passion Flower,
The heliotrope looks upward still,
Hour by hour
On the heavenward hill.
The Passion Flower blooms red or white,
A shadowed white, a cloudless red;
Caressingly it droops its head,
Its leaves, its tendrils, from the light:
Because that lowlier flower
Looks up, but mounts not half so high,
Hour by hour
Tending toward the sky.
A shadowed white, a cloudless red;
Caressingly it droops its head,
Its leaves, its tendrils, from the light:
Because that lowlier flower
Looks up, but mounts not half so high,
Hour by hour
Tending toward the sky.
God's Acre.
Hail, garden of confident hope!Where sweet seeds are quickening in darkness and cold;
For how sweet and how young will they be
When they pierce thro' the mould.
Balm, myrtle, and heliotrope
There watch and there wait out of sight for their Sun:
While the Sun, which they see not, doth see
Each and all one by one.
“The Flowers appear on the Earth.”
Young girls wear flowers,
Young brides a flowery wreath,
But next we plant them
In garden plots of death.
Whose lot is best:
The maiden's curtained rest,
Or bride's whose hoped-for sweet
May yet outstrip her feet?
Ah! what are such as these
To death's sufficing ease?
He sleeps indeed who sleeps in peace
Where night and morning meet.
Young brides a flowery wreath,
But next we plant them
In garden plots of death.
Whose lot is best:
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Or bride's whose hoped-for sweet
May yet outstrip her feet?
Ah! what are such as these
To death's sufficing ease?
He sleeps indeed who sleeps in peace
Where night and morning meet.
Dear are the blossoms
For bride's or maiden's head,
But dearer planted
Around our blessed dead.
Those mind us of decay
And joys that fade away,
These preach to us perfection,
Long love and resurrection.
We make our graveyards fair,
For spirit-like birds of air,
For Angels may be finding there
Lost Eden's own delection.
For bride's or maiden's head,
But dearer planted
Around our blessed dead.
Those mind us of decay
And joys that fade away,
These preach to us perfection,
Long love and resurrection.
We make our graveyards fair,
For spirit-like birds of air,
For Angels may be finding there
Lost Eden's own delection.
“Thou knewest . . . thou oughtest therefore.”
Behold in heaven a floating dazzling cloud,So dazzling that I could but cry Alas!
Alas, because I felt how low I was;
Alas, within my spirit if not aloud,
Foreviewing my last breathless bed and shroud:
Thus pondering, I glanced downward on the grass;
And the grass bowed when airs of heaven would pass,
Lifting itself again when it had bowed.
That grass spake comfort; weak it was and low,
Yet strong enough and high enough to bend
In homage at a message from the sky:
As the grass did and prospered, so will I;
Tho' knowing little, doing what I know,
And strong in patient weakness till the end.
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“Go in Peace.”
Can peach renew lost bloom,Or violet lost perfume,
Or sullied snow turn white as overnight?
Man cannot compass it, yet never fear:
The leper Naaman
Shows what God will and can;
God Who worked there is working here;
Wherefore let shame, not gloom, betinge thy brow,
God Who worked then is working now.
“Half dead.”
O Christ the Life, look on me where I lie
Ready to die:
O Good Samaritan, nay, pass not by.
Ready to die:
O Good Samaritan, nay, pass not by.
O Christ, my Life, pour in Thine oil and wine
To keep me Thine;
Me ever Thine, and Thee for ever mine.
To keep me Thine;
Me ever Thine, and Thee for ever mine.
Watch by Thy saints and sinners, watch by all
Thy great and small:
Once Thou didst call us all,—O Lord, recall.
Thy great and small:
Once Thou didst call us all,—O Lord, recall.
Think how Thy saints love sinners, how they pray
And hope alway,
And thereby grow more like Thee day by day.
And hope alway,
And thereby grow more like Thee day by day.
O Saint of saints, if those with prayer and vow
Succour us now. . . .
It was not they died for us, it was Thou.
Succour us now. . . .
It was not they died for us, it was Thou.
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“One of the Soldiers with a Spear pierced His Side.”
Ah, Lord, we all have pierced Thee: wilt Thou be
Wroth with us all to slay us all?
Nay, Lord, be this thing far from Thee and me:
By whom should we arise, for we are small,
By whom if not by Thee?
Wroth with us all to slay us all?
Nay, Lord, be this thing far from Thee and me:
By whom should we arise, for we are small,
By whom if not by Thee?
Lord, if of us who pierced Thee Thou spare one,
Spare yet one more to love Thy Face,
And yet another of poor souls undone,
Another, and another—God of grace,
Let mercy overrun.
Spare yet one more to love Thy Face,
And yet another of poor souls undone,
Another, and another—God of grace,
Let mercy overrun.
[Where love is, there comes sorrow]
Where love is, there comes sorrow
Today or else tomorrow:
Endure the mood,
Love only means our good.
Today or else tomorrow:
Endure the mood,
Love only means our good.
Where love is, there comes pleasure
With or withouten measure,
Early or late
Cheering the sorriest state.
With or withouten measure,
Early or late
Cheering the sorriest state.
Where love is, all perfection
Is stored for heart's delection;
For where love is
Dwells every sort of bliss.
Is stored for heart's delection;
For where love is
Dwells every sort of bliss.
Who would not choose a sorrow
Love's self will cheer tomorrow?
One day of sorrow,
Then such a long tomorrow!
Love's self will cheer tomorrow?
One day of sorrow,
Then such a long tomorrow!
[Bury Hope out of sight]
Bury Hope out of sight,
No book for it and no bell;
It never could bear the light
Even while growing and well:
Think if now it could bear
The light on its face of care
And grey scattered hair.
No book for it and no bell;
It never could bear the light
Even while growing and well:
Think if now it could bear
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And grey scattered hair.
No grave for Hope in the earth,
But deep in that silent soul
Which rang no bell for its birth
And rings no funeral toll.
Cover its once bright head;
Nor odours nor tears be shed:
It lived once, it is dead.
But deep in that silent soul
Which rang no bell for its birth
And rings no funeral toll.
Cover its once bright head;
Nor odours nor tears be shed:
It lived once, it is dead.
Brief was the day of its power,
The day of its grace how brief:
As the fading of a flower,
As the falling of a leaf,
So brief its day and its hour;
No bud more and no bower
Or hint of a flower.
The day of its grace how brief:
As the fading of a flower,
As the falling of a leaf,
So brief its day and its hour;
No bud more and no bower
Or hint of a flower.
Shall many wail it? not so:
Shall one bewail it? not one:
Thus it hath been from long ago,
Thus it shall be beneath the sun.
O fleet sun, make haste to flee;
O rivers, fill up the sea;
O Death, set the dying free.
Shall one bewail it? not one:
Thus it hath been from long ago,
Thus it shall be beneath the sun.
O fleet sun, make haste to flee;
O rivers, fill up the sea;
O Death, set the dying free.
The sun nor loiters nor speeds,
The rivers run as they ran,
Thro' clouds or thro' windy reeds
All run as when all began.
Only Death turns at our cries:—
Lo, the Hope we buried with sighs
Alive in Death's eyes!
The rivers run as they ran,
Thro' clouds or thro' windy reeds
All run as when all began.
Only Death turns at our cries:—
Lo, the Hope we buried with sighs
Alive in Death's eyes!
A Churchyard Song of Patient Hope.
All tears done away with the bitter unquiet sea,
Death done away from among the living at last,
Man shall say of sorrow—Love grant it to thee and me!—
At last, “It is past.”
Death done away from among the living at last,
Man shall say of sorrow—Love grant it to thee and me!—
At last, “It is past.”
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Shall I say of pain, “It is past,” nor say it with thee,
Thou heart of my heart, thou soul of my soul, my Friend?
Shalt thou say of pain, “It is past,” nor say it with me
Beloved to the end?
Thou heart of my heart, thou soul of my soul, my Friend?
Shalt thou say of pain, “It is past,” nor say it with me
Beloved to the end?
[One woe is past. Come what come will]
One woe is past. Come what come will
Thus much is ended and made fast:
Two woes may overhang us still;
One woe is past.
Thus much is ended and made fast:
Two woes may overhang us still;
One woe is past.
As flowers when winter puffs its last
Wake in the vale, trail up the hill,
Nor wait for skies to overcast;
Wake in the vale, trail up the hill,
Nor wait for skies to overcast;
So meek souls rally from the chill
Of pain and fear and poisonous blast,
To lift their heads: come good, come ill,
One woe is past.
Of pain and fear and poisonous blast,
To lift their heads: come good, come ill,
One woe is past.
“Take no thought for the morrow.”
Who knows? God knows: and what He knows
Is well and best.
The darkness hideth not from Him, but glows
Clear as the morning or the evening rose
Of east or west.
Is well and best.
The darkness hideth not from Him, but glows
Clear as the morning or the evening rose
Of east or west.
Wherefore man's strength is to sit still:
Not wasting care
To antedate tomorrow's good or ill;
Yet watching meekly, watching with good will,
Watching to prayer.
Not wasting care
To antedate tomorrow's good or ill;
Yet watching meekly, watching with good will,
Watching to prayer.
Some rising or some setting ray
From east or west,
If not today, why then another day
Will light each dove upon the homeward way
Safe to her nest.
From east or west,
If not today, why then another day
Will light each dove upon the homeward way
Safe to her nest.
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“Consider the Lilies of the field.”
Solomon most glorious in arrayPut not on his glories without care:—
Clothe us as Thy lilies of a day,
As the lilies Thou accountest fair,
Lilies of Thy making,
Of Thy love partaking,
Filling with free fragrance earth and air:
Thou Who gatherest lilies, gather us and wear.
“Son, remember.”
I laid beside thy gate, am Lazarus;See me or see me not I still am there,
Hungry and thirsty, sore and sick and bare,
Dog-comforted and crumbs-solicitous:
While thou in all thy ways art sumptuous,
Daintily clothed, with dainties for thy fare:
Thus a world's wonder thou art quit of care,
And be I seen or not seen I am thus.
One day a worm for thee, a worm for me:
With my worm angel songs and trumpet burst
And plenitude an end of all desire:
But what for thee, alas! but what for thee?
Fire and an unextinguishable thirst,
Thirst in an unextinguishable fire.
“Heaviness may endure for a night, but Joy cometh in the morning.”
No thing is great on this side of the grave,
Nor any thing of any stable worth:
Whatso is born from earth returns to earth:
No thing we grasp proves half the thing we crave:
The tidal wave shrinks to the ebbing wave:
Laughter is folly, madness lurks in mirth:
Mankind sets off a-dying from the birth:
Life is a losing game, with what to save?
Thus I sat mourning like a mournful owl,
And like a doleful dragon made ado,
Companion of all monsters of the dark:
When lo! the light cast off its nightly cowl,
And up to heaven flashed a carolling lark,
And all creation sang its hymn anew.
Nor any thing of any stable worth:
Whatso is born from earth returns to earth:
No thing we grasp proves half the thing we crave:
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Laughter is folly, madness lurks in mirth:
Mankind sets off a-dying from the birth:
Life is a losing game, with what to save?
Thus I sat mourning like a mournful owl,
And like a doleful dragon made ado,
Companion of all monsters of the dark:
When lo! the light cast off its nightly cowl,
And up to heaven flashed a carolling lark,
And all creation sang its hymn anew.
While all creation sang its hymn anew
What could I do but sing a stave in tune?
Spectral on high hung pale the vanishing moon
Where a last gleam of stars hung paling too.
Lark's lay—a cockcrow—with a scattered few
Soft early chirpings—with a tender croon
Of doves—a hundred thousand calls, and soon
A hundred thousand answers sweet and true.
These set me singing too at unawares:
One note for all delights and charities,
One note for hope reviving with the light,
One note for every lovely thing that is;
Till while I sang my heart shook off its cares
And revelled in the land of no more night.
What could I do but sing a stave in tune?
Spectral on high hung pale the vanishing moon
Where a last gleam of stars hung paling too.
Lark's lay—a cockcrow—with a scattered few
Soft early chirpings—with a tender croon
Of doves—a hundred thousand calls, and soon
A hundred thousand answers sweet and true.
These set me singing too at unawares:
One note for all delights and charities,
One note for hope reviving with the light,
One note for every lovely thing that is;
Till while I sang my heart shook off its cares
And revelled in the land of no more night.
“The Will of the Lord be done.”
O Lord, fulfil Thy WillBe the days few or many, good or ill:
Prolong them, to suffice
For offering up ourselves Thy sacrifice;
Shorten them if Thou wilt,
To make in righteousness an end of guilt.
Yea, they will not be long
To souls who learn to sing a patient song;
Yea, short they will not be
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O Lord, fulfil Thy Will:
Make Thy Will ours, and keep us patient still
Be the days few or many, good or ill.
“Lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven.”
Treasure plies a feather,
Pleasure spreadeth wings,
Taking flight together,—
Ah! my cherished things.
Pleasure spreadeth wings,
Taking flight together,—
Ah! my cherished things.
Fly away, poor pleasure,
That art so brief a thing:
Fly away, poor treasure,
That hast so swift a wing.
That art so brief a thing:
Fly away, poor treasure,
That hast so swift a wing.
Pleasure, to be pleasure,
Must come without a wing:
Treasure, to be treasure,
Must be a stable thing.
Must come without a wing:
Treasure, to be treasure,
Must be a stable thing.
Treasure without feather,
Pleasure without wings,
Elsewhere dwell together
And are heavenly things.
Pleasure without wings,
Elsewhere dwell together
And are heavenly things.
“Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.”
“One sorrow more? I thought the tale complete.”—
He bore amiss who grudges what he bore:
Stretch out thy hands and urge thy feet to meet
One sorrow more.
He bore amiss who grudges what he bore:
Stretch out thy hands and urge thy feet to meet
One sorrow more.
Yea, make thy count for two or three or four:
The kind Physician will not slack to treat
His patient while there's rankling in the sore.
The kind Physician will not slack to treat
His patient while there's rankling in the sore.
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Bear up in anguish, ease will yet be sweet;
Bear up all day, for night has rest in store:
Christ bears thy burden with thee, rise and greet
One sorrow more.
Bear up all day, for night has rest in store:
Christ bears thy burden with thee, rise and greet
One sorrow more.
“Then shall ye shout.”
It seems an easy thing
Mayhap one day to sing
Yet the next day
We cannot sing or say.
Mayhap one day to sing
Yet the next day
We cannot sing or say.
Keep silence with good heart,
While silence fits our part:
Another day
We shall both sing and say.
While silence fits our part:
Another day
We shall both sing and say.
Keep silence, counting time
To strike in at the chime:
Prepare to sound,—
Our part is coming round.
To strike in at the chime:
Prepare to sound,—
Our part is coming round.
Can we not sing or say?
In silence let us pray,
And meditate
Our love-song while we wait.
In silence let us pray,
And meditate
Our love-song while we wait.
[Everything that is born must die]
Everything that is born must die;
Everything that can sigh may sing;
Rocks in equal balance, low or high,
Everything.
Everything that can sigh may sing;
Rocks in equal balance, low or high,
Everything.
Honeycomb is weighed against a sting;
Hope and fear take turns to touch the sky;
Height and depth respond alternating.
Hope and fear take turns to touch the sky;
Height and depth respond alternating.
O my soul, spread wings of love to fly,
Wings of dove that soars on home-bound wing:
Love trusts Love, till Love shall justify
Everything.
Wings of dove that soars on home-bound wing:
Love trusts Love, till Love shall justify
Everything.
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[Lord, grant us calm, if calm can set forth Thee]
Lord, grant us calm, if calm can set forth Thee;
Or tempest, if a tempest set Thee forth;
Wind from the east or west or south or north,
Or congelation of a silent sea,
With stillness of each tremulous aspen tree.
Or tempest, if a tempest set Thee forth;
Wind from the east or west or south or north,
Or congelation of a silent sea,
With stillness of each tremulous aspen tree.
Still let fruit fall, or hang upon the tree;
Still let the east and west, the south and north,
Curb in their winds, or plough a thundering sea;
Still let the earth abide to set Thee forth,
Or vanish like a smoke to set forth Thee.
Still let the east and west, the south and north,
Curb in their winds, or plough a thundering sea;
Still let the earth abide to set Thee forth,
Or vanish like a smoke to set forth Thee.
Changing Chimes.
It was not warning that our fathers lacked,
It is not warning that we lack today.
The Voice that cried still cries: “Rise up and act:
Watch alway,—watch and pray,—watch alway,—
All men.”
It is not warning that we lack today.
The Voice that cried still cries: “Rise up and act:
Watch alway,—watch and pray,—watch alway,—
All men.”
Alas, if aught was lacked goodwill was lacked;
Alas, goodwill is what we lack today.
O gracious Voice, grant grace that all may act,
Watch and act,—watch and pray,—watch alway.—
Amen.
Alas, goodwill is what we lack today.
O gracious Voice, grant grace that all may act,
Watch and act,—watch and pray,—watch alway.—
Amen.
“Thy Servant will go and fight with this Philistine.”
Sorrow of saints is sorrow of a day,Gladness of saints is gladness evermore:
Send on thy hope, send on thy will before
To chant God's praise along the narrow way.
Stir up His praises if the flesh would sway,
Exalt His praises if the world press sore,
Peal out His praises if black Satan roar
A hundred thousand lies to say them nay.
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Not quickly broken, front thee to thy face;
Front thou them with a face of tenfold flint:
Shout for the battle, David! never stint
Body or breath or blood, but proof in grace
Die for thy Lord, as once for thee thy Lord.
[Thro' burden and heat of the day]
Thro' burden and heat of the day
How weary the hands and the feet
That labour with scarcely a stay,
Thro' burden and heat!
How weary the hands and the feet
That labour with scarcely a stay,
Thro' burden and heat!
Tired toiler whose sleep shall be sweet,
Kneel down, it will rest thee to pray:
Then forward, for daylight is fleet.
Kneel down, it will rest thee to pray:
Then forward, for daylight is fleet.
Cool shadows show lengthening and grey,
Cool twilight will soon be complete:
What matters this wearisome way
Thro' burden and heat?
Cool twilight will soon be complete:
What matters this wearisome way
Thro' burden and heat?
“Then I commended Mirth.”
“A merry heart is a continual feast.”
Then take we life and all things in good part:
To fast grows festive while we keep at least
A merry heart
Then take we life and all things in good part:
To fast grows festive while we keep at least
A merry heart
Well pleased with nature and well pleased with art;
A merry heart makes cheer for man and beast,
And fancies music in a creaking cart.
A merry heart makes cheer for man and beast,
And fancies music in a creaking cart.
Some day, a restful heart whose toils have ceased,
A heavenly heart gone home from earthly mart:
Today, blow wind from west or wind from east,
A merry heart.
A heavenly heart gone home from earthly mart:
Today, blow wind from west or wind from east,
A merry heart.
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Sorrow hath a double voice,
Sharp today but sweet tomorrow:
Wait in patience, hope, rejoice,
Tried friends of sorrow.
Sharp today but sweet tomorrow:
Wait in patience, hope, rejoice,
Tried friends of sorrow.
Pleasure hath a double taste,
Sweet today but sharp tomorrow:
Friends of pleasure, rise in haste,
Make friends with sorrow.
Sweet today but sharp tomorrow:
Friends of pleasure, rise in haste,
Make friends with sorrow.
Pleasure set aside today
Comes again to rule tomorrow:
Welcomed sorrow will not stay,
Farewell to sorrow!
Comes again to rule tomorrow:
Welcomed sorrow will not stay,
Farewell to sorrow!
[Shadows today, while shadows show God's Will.]
Shadows today, while shadows show God's Will.Light were not good except He sent us light.
Shadows today, because this day is night
Whose marvels and whose mysteries fulfil
Their course and deep in darkness serve Him still.
Thou dim aurora, on the extremest height
Of airy summits wax not over-bright;
Refrain thy rose, refrain thy daffodil.
Until God's Word go forth to kindle thee
And garland thee and bid thee stoop to us,
Blush in the heavenly choirs and glance not down:
Today we race in darkness for a crown,
In darkness for beatitude to be,
In darkness for the city luminous.
“Truly the Light is sweet.”
Light colourless doth colour all things else:
Where light dwells pleasure dwells
And peace excels.
Then rise and shine,
Thou shadowed soul of mine,
And let a cheerful rainbow make thee fine.
Where light dwells pleasure dwells
And peace excels.
Then rise and shine,
Thou shadowed soul of mine,
And let a cheerful rainbow make thee fine.
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Light, fountain of all beauty and delight,
Leads day forth from the night,
Turns blackness white.
Light waits for thee
Where all have eyes to see:
Oh, well is thee, and happy shalt thou be!
Leads day forth from the night,
Turns blackness white.
Light waits for thee
Where all have eyes to see:
Oh, well is thee, and happy shalt thou be!
“Are ye not much better than they?”
The twig sprouteth,
The moth outeth,
The plant springeth,
The bird singeth:
Tho' little we sing today
Yet are we better than they;
Tho' growing with scarce a showing,
Yet, please God, we are growing.
The moth outeth,
The plant springeth,
The bird singeth:
Tho' little we sing today
Yet are we better than they;
Tho' growing with scarce a showing,
Yet, please God, we are growing.
The twig teacheth,
The moth preacheth,
The plant vaunteth,
The bird chanteth,
God's mercy overflowing
Merciful past man's knowing.
Please God to keep us growing
Till the awful day of mowing.
The moth preacheth,
The plant vaunteth,
The bird chanteth,
God's mercy overflowing
Merciful past man's knowing.
Please God to keep us growing
Till the awful day of mowing.
“Yea, the sparrow hath found her an house.”
Wisest of sparrows that sparrow which sitteth alone
Perched on the housetop, its own upper chamber, for nest;
Wisest of swallows that swallow which timely has flown
Over the turbulent sea to the land of its rest:
Wisest of sparrows and swallows, if I were as wise!
Perched on the housetop, its own upper chamber, for nest;
Wisest of swallows that swallow which timely has flown
Over the turbulent sea to the land of its rest:
Wisest of sparrows and swallows, if I were as wise!
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Wisest of spirits that spirit which dwelleth apart
Hid in the Presence of God for a chapel and nest,
Sending a wish and a will and a passionate heart
Over the eddy of life to that Presence in rest:
Seated alone and in peace till God bids it arise.
Hid in the Presence of God for a chapel and nest,
Sending a wish and a will and a passionate heart
Over the eddy of life to that Presence in rest:
Seated alone and in peace till God bids it arise.
“I am small and of no reputation.”
The least, if so I am;
If so, less than the least,
May I reach heaven to glorify the Lamb
And sit down at the Feast.
If so, less than the least,
May I reach heaven to glorify the Lamb
And sit down at the Feast.
I fear and I am small,
Whence am I of good cheer;
For I who hear Thy call, have heard Thee call
To Thee the small who fear.
Whence am I of good cheer;
For I who hear Thy call, have heard Thee call
To Thee the small who fear.
[O Christ my God Who seest the unseen]
O Christ my God Who seest the unseen,
O Christ my God Who knowest the unknown,
Thy mighty Blood was poured forth to atone
For every sin that can be or hath been.
O Christ my God Who knowest the unknown,
Thy mighty Blood was poured forth to atone
For every sin that can be or hath been.
O Thou Who seest what I cannot see,
Thou Who didst love us all so long ago,
O Thou Who knowest what I must not know,
Remember all my hope, remember me.
Thou Who didst love us all so long ago,
O Thou Who knowest what I must not know,
Remember all my hope, remember me.
[Yea, if Thou wilt, Thou canst put up Thy sword]
Yea, if Thou wilt, Thou canst put up Thy sword;
But what if Thou shouldst sheathe it to the hilt
Within the heart that sues to Thee, O Lord?
Yea, if Thou wilt.
But what if Thou shouldst sheathe it to the hilt
Within the heart that sues to Thee, O Lord?
Yea, if Thou wilt.
For if Thou wilt Thou canst purge out the guilt
Of all, of any, even the most abhorred:
Thou canst pluck down, rebuild, build up the unbuilt.
Of all, of any, even the most abhorred:
Thou canst pluck down, rebuild, build up the unbuilt.
Who wanders, canst Thou gather by love's cord?
Who sinks, uplift from the under-sucking silt
To set him on Thy rock within Thy ward?
Yea, if Thou wilt.
Who sinks, uplift from the under-sucking silt
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Yea, if Thou wilt.
[Sweetness of rest when Thou sheddest rest]
Sweetness of rest when Thou sheddest rest,
Sweetness of patience till then;
Only the Will of our God is best
For all the millions of men.
Sweetness of patience till then;
Only the Will of our God is best
For all the millions of men.
For all the millions on earth today,
On earth and under the earth;
Waiting for earth to vanish away,
Waiting to come to the birth.
On earth and under the earth;
Waiting for earth to vanish away,
Waiting to come to the birth.
[O foolish Soul! to make thy count]
O foolish Soul! to make thy count
For languid falls and much forgiven,
When like a flame thou mightest mount
To storm and carry heaven.
For languid falls and much forgiven,
When like a flame thou mightest mount
To storm and carry heaven.
A life so faint,—is this to live?
A goal so mean,—is this a goal?
Christ love thee, remedy, forgive,
Save thee, O foolish Soul.
A goal so mean,—is this a goal?
Christ love thee, remedy, forgive,
Save thee, O foolish Soul.
[Before the beginning Thou hast foreknown the end]
Before the beginning Thou hast foreknown the end,
Before the birthday the death-bed was seen of Thee:
Cleanse what I cannot cleanse, mend what I cannot mend,
O Lord All-Merciful, be merciful to me.
Before the birthday the death-bed was seen of Thee:
Cleanse what I cannot cleanse, mend what I cannot mend,
O Lord All-Merciful, be merciful to me.
While the end is drawing near I know not mine end;
Birth I recall not, my death I cannot foresee:
O God, arise to defend, arise to befriend,
O Lord All-Merciful, be merciful to me.
Birth I recall not, my death I cannot foresee:
O God, arise to defend, arise to befriend,
O Lord All-Merciful, be merciful to me.
[The goal in sight! Look up and sing]
The goal in sight! Look up and sing,
Set faces full against the light,
Welcome with rapturous welcoming
The goal in sight.
Set faces full against the light,
Welcome with rapturous welcoming
The goal in sight.
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Let be the left, let be the right:
Straight forward make your footsteps ring
A loud alarum thro' the night.
Straight forward make your footsteps ring
A loud alarum thro' the night.
Death hunts you, yea, but reft of sting;
Your bed is green, your shroud is white:
Hail! Life and Death and all that bring
The goal in sight.
Your bed is green, your shroud is white:
Hail! Life and Death and all that bring
The goal in sight.
[Looking back along life's trodden way]
Looking back along life's trodden way
Gleams and greenness linger on the track;
Distance melts and mellows all today,
Looking back.
Gleams and greenness linger on the track;
Distance melts and mellows all today,
Looking back.
Rose and purple and a silvery grey,
Is that cloud the cloud we called so black?
Evening harmonizes all today,
Looking back.
Is that cloud the cloud we called so black?
Evening harmonizes all today,
Looking back.
Foolish feet so prone to halt or stray,
Foolish heart so restive on the rack!
Yesterday we sighed, but not today
Looking back.
Foolish heart so restive on the rack!
Yesterday we sighed, but not today
Looking back.
| The Complete Poems of Christina Rossetti | |