Betwixt Two Seas :: :: University of Virginia Library

Time of long ling'ring days,
Of onward-straining eyes,
Of undiscover'd ways,
And shrouded mysteries!
When the great God of all
Leant down to hear our pray'rs,
Mark'd e'en the sparrow's fall,
And number'd all our hairs!
When Christ for us was poor,
And hung upon the tree,
And Death,—no tyrant sure—
Whose pitiless decree,
Fix'd as the firmament,
No man may slight or shun,

Came but as accident,
And mere mischance, to one;
Then all undreaded went,
As though his work were done!

II

And what if the heart was gay,
The passionate tears soon dried,
To-morrow, e'en as to-day,
Our tribute of trust untried?
And what if the groves were sweet
With flow'rs that have faded since,
And trod of the tripping feet
Of fairy and fairy Prince?
'Twas ever beyond, beyond,
We gazed with impatient eyes,
Whene'er the grey twilight donn'd
Her glory of sunset skies;
Then the signs and the wonders grew,—
The seraphs with shining wings,

The horsemen that closed and drew,
The dragons and wingèd things,
Like those that once ramp'd and flew
Up over the casques of kings.

III

'Twas thus that the days drifted by,
And, all careless, we watched them close,
Whilst farewell twitter and cry
From the heart of the woodland rose;
How black, from the warm cot-nest,
Out over the nursery bars,
Loom'd the swaying Scotch fir-tree's crest,
So soon to be crown'd with its stars!
And how bright, in the sweet Spring morn,
Rose the great round sun overhead!
How blithe was the bird in the thorn,
The bee in the garden bed!
Thus drifted the hurrying hours,
Till lo! a step at the door,

And a breath o'er the garden bow'rs
That had never breathed there before,
And Love, half hidden in flow'rs,
Whispered “Thou art a child no more.”