Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold By "F. Harald Williams"[i.e. F. W. O. Ward]. First Edition |
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THE HARVEST. |
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 | Matin Bells and Scarlet and Gold |  |
THE HARVEST.
Thou hast come to the reckoning now and the harvest;Reaper what hast thou sown;
Didst thou say to the needy one, “Brother, thou starvest;
Make my plenty thine own?”
Hast thou stood betwixt weakness and want, with thy shoulder
Bearing burdens for them,
And received on thy bosom their wounds, waxing bolder,
With storms they could not stem?
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In the wilderness dearth,
Or bid sunshine arise on the refuge of blindness
To regenerate earth?
Wast thou hands to the helpless and feet to the falling
And release to the bound,
Or a bridge to the exile's captivity calling
As from burial ground?
Could the wail of misfortune so shadowed by malice
Ever darken thy joy,
Or the sigh of the suffering poison its chalice
And deny thee one toy?
Thou hast come to the judgment at last and the reaping;
Sinner what hast thou sown?
But the thorns and the thistles of lust, for the heaping
Of a vengeance unknown?
Didst thou share thy rich fulness with him who lacked clothing
And besought it in vain,
Giving aught to the naked who wept and had nothing
But the garment of pain?
Hast thou spared of thy crusts to the sister who pleaded
In her misery rough,
When she passed by thy palace gates lone and unheeded,
Though thy dogs had enough?
Would'st thou enter the prison and loose but a fetter
If beyond thy proud class,
Or just leave by thy presence the earth around better
By a blade of green grass?
Didst thou strive in the struggle for life that is labour
Where the feeble ones fall,
With an arm for the faint and an ear for the neighbour
In the vilest of all?
Hast thou once with a finger helped one with the burden
Of his sorrow or sin,
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Or felt mourners akin?
Thou hast come to the trial, the close and the sentence,
Sleeper, what hast thou sown?
There is no place for pardon, no time for repentance,
Now the harvest is grown.
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