The Poetical Works of George Barlow :: :: University of Virginia Library

They were young and glad together
In the dawn of life's first May,
When in bright and sunny weather
Sang the birds from every spray.
Clear the heaven shone out above them;
Blue and radiant were the skies:
All things living seemed to love them,
And the Spring gleamed in her eyes.

Through life's Summer still together,
Hand in hand and heart to heart,
They have borne the sultry weather
And have watched the days depart.
Still she is to him the maiden
Who stepped daintily of old
Through the grass, her apron laden
With bright buttercups of gold.

222

Still together, still together,
They will face life's autumn hours:
In the grim November weather
Love will strew their path with flowers.
For their love has ever brightened
Since the first long loving day,
And their happiness has heightened,
Though their hair is growing grey.

223

HEAVENLY WHISPERS

Hardly one sad soul is friendless;
Somewhere glows a kindred heart;
Yes, though dreary days seem endless,
Though sad springs on springs depart.
If the rich man in his garden
Breathes the incense of the rose,
For the poor man at his window
White and pure the snowdrop blows.

Aye, if every friend be taken,
If our silent hearth be lone,
Yet are we not all forsaken,
Dearer far the dead have grown.
Is there one sad soul who hears not
From the land beyond the grave
Loving voices, gentle whispers,
As of souls who yearn to save?

224

And if even these we hear not,
If the depth of heaven be gloom,
If the angel-voices cheer not,
Sound not from beyond the tomb,
Still no soul is friendless wholly;
Each one who the earth hath trod
Hath one Friend, one Friend undying,—
Every soul is dear to God.

225

THE HIGHER BEAUTY

Let the poet worship beauty,
Let him dream within the eyes
Of his loved one full of sunlight,
Sweeter than the sunniest skies:
Let him find in woman's glances
Theme for passion and for praise:
Let them fill with wild romances
All the dreams of all his days.

But a nobler thing than beauty
And a worthier gift by far
Is the love that crowns each duty
With the crown of sun or star.
Lovely even on earth is woman:
She's an angel from the skies
When she bends to help the helpless,
With God's pity in her eyes.

226

Poets, lovers, ye who worship
Beauty's every curve and line,
Worship even more devoutly
Woman's tenderness divine.
Sculptors, painters, ye who build her
Temples in the realm of Art,
Praise beyond a woman's beauty
Woman's ever-loving heart.

227

“MY QUEEN AND I”

We walked the woods, my queen and I;
The air was bright with spring:
Warm was the sun, and blue the sky,
And clear the lark did sing.
“O love, will you be ever true?”
“Aye, true till death!” she said;
“True, till the sun forsakes the sky,
Till every star is dead.”
She spoke, and looked up with a sigh:
And then we smiled, my queen and I!

To-day we walked through waving corn;
Our path lay through the gold:
It was a perfect August morn,
Sweet as that morn of old.

228

We strolled along, my wife and I:
“How short life seems,” she said;
“How sad to think that love must die,
As spring-flowers all are dead.”
I heard, and looked down with a sigh:
And then we smiled, my queen and I!

And one day through life's autumn woods,
With golden leaves around,
Beneath grey sky my love and I
Shall wander, calm and crowned:
Crowned, not with summer dreams that melt
When sets the summer sun,
But with a sweetness only felt
When wedded hearts grow one.
Our looks will meet without a sigh
When we grow old, my queen and I!

229

“THINE EYES SHALL SEE THE KING!”

Thine eyes shall see the King.
When earth's wild wastes are trod,
Thine eyes shall look on God:
Winter shall cease, and change to heavenly spring—
Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty,
Thine eyes shall see the King!

Him shall thine eyes behold.
When sorrow's overpast
Him shalt thou see at last,
And tread with him the heavenly courts of gold—
Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty,
Thine eyes shall see the King!

Thine eyes shall see the King.
The Vision surely waits
Beyond death's solemn gates,
Awful with light that only death can bring:
Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty,
Thine eyes shall surely see the King.

230

LIGHT IN DARKNESS

Sufferer, though thy path be dark,
Though no starlight thou mayest mark,
Though the days bring deepening pain
And love's old sweet hopes seem vain,
Though thine eve belie thy morn,
Though thy brows be pierced with thorn,
Though thy path lie through the night,
Christ thy Lord shall be thy Light!

Youth, round whom the sunlight gleams,
Passing through the vale of dreams,
Faint the mountains seem and far,
Flowers in myriads round thee are.
Yet thou needest Christ to guard!
Soon thy pathway may be barred
By an host as yet concealed:
Then thou needest Christ for Shield!

231

Youth and age indeed are one:
Each needs Christ for star and sun;
Christ for shield, and crown, and sword;
Christ's sweet welcome for reward.
When the golden gateways shine,
Then may Christ with voice divine
Say to each, “Thou need'st not fear;
We were waiting for thee here!”

232

“LITTLE THINGS”

Art thou powerless, friend, for much?
Every heart can bless;
Every loving look and touch
Makes life's sorrow less.
Psalms are in the ocean's swell,
But the brooklet charms as well
With its laughter light.
Life and love pursue the sun,
Yet what starry work is done
In the purple night:
Stars complete his task begun
Through the purple night.

Every little helps along,
Cheers and lifts and speeds,—
Note of wren and robin's song,
Lisp of river-reeds.

233

Not so much the queenly rose
Gives the wearied heart repose
As the daisy trim.
Is the road the Master trod
Over-hard for less than God?
Thou canst gaze at him:
Where he triumphed, thou canst plod
Humbly after him.

234

A FAIRY GARDEN

Life was all a fairy garden
When we walked in childhood's ways,—
Starlit nights of happy dreaming,
Sunshine through the golden days.
But the moments passed, and left us
Somewhat weary, every one;
And each year of life bereft us
Of some further gleam of sun.

God had given us in our childhood
A pure angel from his skies
To watch over childish footsteps,—
And his love beamed from her eyes.
Ah! how many an angel-mother
Here has tarried for awhile,
Then has left us,—and no other
Has the sweetness of her smile!

235

But another angel finds us:
God will leave us not alone.
Somewhat of a mother's sweetness
Soundeth in a younger tone.
God, who knew our childhood's dangers,
Knew the weariness of life,
Sent the child the mother-angel,—
Sends the man the angel-wife.

236

LIFE'S PATH

Life's path winds ever upward;
'Tis no use looking back:
The flowers we love and long for
Are further on the track.
Not in the old green valleys
Our haven can be found,
But where the North wind sallies
Across rough mountain ground.
Then ho! for noble climbing.
Life's work is not yet done:
Our work will not be over
Till the last peak is won.

Yes, ho! for noble climbing,
And effort pure and high.
The green seductive valleys
Fade out from heart and eye.

237

The mountains, ho! the mountains—
Our path lies over these;
We quit the valley-fountains,
We quit the flowers and trees.
We struggle ever upward:
Upon the mountain's crest,
But never till we reach it,
Our weary souls may rest.

238

“HOME AT LAST!”

Long years of grief and sighing!
Wild seasons of unrest!
Hope blooming,—straightway dying
On Winter's frozen breast!
Through storm and strife God steers us,
Till storm and strife be past:
This one thought ever cheers us—
We shall win home at last!
Home at last!

God's dice are always loaded.
Not fruitless is the pain
Of one flower-bud corroded
By harsh November's rain.
God brings the singing season,
And tunes the thrush's lute,
In spite of Winter's treason
Who gazes blank and mute,
Blank and mute!

239

Through all the storms God leads us,
And leads the years that wane:
The Love eternal heeds us,
And changes grief to gain.
Time lines and grooves our features;
Pain wears our spirits fast:
But God will bring his creatures
All safely home at last,
Home at last!

240

FLOWERS

SONNET

Mixed with the savour of that central Rose
That fills the temple of my heart with bloom
Float other seemly odours; there is room
For a soft lily tender as the snows,
And by her side a red anemone blows,
And a staunch wall-flower. Each of these I love:
White, red, and yellow banners wave above
The plot of quiet ground where each one grows.
And over them there stands that crimson flower
That, like a picture in a hollow frame,
Thrills the recesses of my heart with flame,
A very torrent of voluptuous power:
Yet from those smaller blossoms in their hour
Scents delicate and floods of colour came.

December 1, 1871.

241

FOREBODING

SONNET

Oh hold me fast, my darling, hold me fast!
I hear the terrible approaching wings
Of Time, like black-plumed pestilential things,
Like dim black-throated swifts with bodies cast
On the loose circles of an eddying blast:
I hear the hoarse reproach his coming brings.
Yea, he shall loosen that pale mouth that clings
To mine,—our passion shall be floated past
But as a red leaf on the autumnal wind.
And, therefore, for the last time, hold me tight,
And shine upon me with thine own sweet light
Of eyes whose magic I was wont to find
Even as summer, delicate and kind;
Even as spring, immeasurably bright.

December 15, 1871.

242

CONFIDENCE

SONNET

I have written many sonnets of mistrust
But now I brush misgiving from me, dear:
My soul is confident, my brain is clear:
I tread my doubts and misery to dust.
I bid the east wind with a rapid gust
Sweep timid apprehension far from here:
I rest upon your faith without a fear:
I slay my weakness with a final thrust.
I know that thou art certainly as pure
As any snowdrop, and as soft and white:
That, even as the mountains do endure,
So doth the calm inviolable might
Of maidenhood and beauty, and that your
Sweet eyes are as the stars' unshaken light.

January 9, 1872.

243

VIOLET-EYES

SONNET

Your eyes were grey before, but now they gleam
Like violets set within an ivory frame:
So soft and so ethereal a flame
Doth play about them, that to me they seem
As subtle and as shifting as a dream.
Your lips are sweet as violets, and as red
As roses: round about your fair soft head
Hovers a silvery moon-forsaken beam.
What miracles hath Love within his power,
That these clear eyes, that were but sorry grey
A short while since, now bloom like any flower,
Unfolding a most lovely violet ray,
Increasing in its warmth from hour to hour,
And in its tenderness from day to day.

January 9, 1872.

244

“THE MOMENT CAME”

The moment came, and I never knew it,
The moment to die at the palace gate:
And for ever and ever my soul will rue it
That the message came, but came too late.

O angels who guarded my life's gold portal
Why did ye not speak one warning word
Clear, straight, from immortals to one sad mortal
Whose very soul would have leapt, had he heard?

Why did ye not speak, while life was painless,
My loved one safe in the sweet safe nest
Now stained with the blood of the dove most stainless
And robbed for ever of sleep and rest?

June 11, 1900.

245

NEVER MORE

New foaming seas,
New spring-tide breeze,
New shells upon the shore,
New leaves on trees,—
But never never more
Those blue waves, blue whatever winds might wail or roar.

New loves with gold
Locks like the old,
New rose-mouth to adore,
New hands to hold,—
But never never more
The woman's face which lighted all that laughing shore.

The shore where fell
Waves loved so well,
Where cliffs their gold flowers bore,
Whose tender tendrils swell
This year,—but never more
Shall crown the brown-haired head they crowned and bound of yore.