A Sculptor and Other Poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

There came one day a leper to my door:
I shrank from him in loathing and in dread,
But yet, remembering how old legends said
That Jesus Christ so often heretofore
Came in such guise to try His saints of yore,
I brought him in, and cloth'd, and warm'd, and fed;
Yea, brake my box of precious nard, to pour
Its costly fragrancy upon his feet.
And when the house was fill'd with odour sweet,
I lookt to see the loveliest face,—but o'er
The leper came no change divine to greet
My eager soul, which did such change entreat.
And then I bow'd my head, and wept full sore—
Ah! the times change; such visions come no more!

II

With tear-dimm'd eyes I went upon my way,
Past from the city to the April wood,

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Where the young trees in trembling gladness stood;
And once again my grieved heart grew gay.
Then did I see a little child at play;
All the sweet April fountain of his blood
Tost out in joy, that brake in laughter-spray;
And all my heart it lov'd him; so I bent
To kiss his sunny mouth. Then through me went
That which I may not tell, nor can, to-day.
When was such healing with such wounding blent?
Such pain supreme with such supreme content?
The fires of God comfort as well as slay,
Else had I surely died, who am but clay.