The Reliquary By Bernard and Lucy Barton. With A Prefatory Appeal for Poetry and Poets |
 |
| I. | SONNET. I.
|
| II. |
 | The Reliquary |  |
46
SONNET. I.
[It is a painful and perplexing time!]
“Knowst thou of yesterday, its aim and reason?
Workest thou well to-day, for worthy things?
Then calmly wait to-morrow's hidden season,
And fear not thou, what hap soe'er it brings!”
Workest thou well to-day, for worthy things?
Then calmly wait to-morrow's hidden season,
And fear not thou, what hap soe'er it brings!”
It is a painful and perplexing time!
Nor can the statesman's proudest skill suggest
A charm by which its ills may be redrest;
Much less can magic melody of rhyme,
Howe'er elaborate, tuneful, or sublime:—
Yet he who, in these days of dark unrest,
Asks of the oracle within his breast
“Is there no hope?” will own the doubt a crime.
The Almighty reigns in heaven! tho' we on earth
Are, of ourselves, most helpless, and most weak;
And all who unto Him for counsel seek,
As well as surest help, shall own their worth,
And in their grateful hearts confess the birth
Of thoughts which still of hope and comfort speak.
| The Reliquary | |