s: son with all due rites, do thus, Achilles, and I shall be


s: grateful. You know how we are pent up within our city; it is far


s: for us to fetch wood from the mountain, and the people live in


s: fear. Nine days, therefore, will we mourn Hector in my house; on


s: the tenth day we will bury him and there shall be a public feast


s: in his honour; on the eleventh we will build a mound over his


s: ashes, and on the twelfth, if there be need, we will fight."


s: And Achilles answered, "All, King Priam, shall be as you have


s: said. I will stay our fighting for as long a time as you have


s: As he spoke he laid his hand on the old man's right wrist, in


s: token that he should have no fear; thus then did Priam and his


s: attendant sleep there in the forecourt, full of thought, while


s: Achilles lay in an inner room of the house, with fair Briseis by


s: And now both gods and mortals were fast asleep through the


s: livelong night, but upon Mercury alone, the bringer of good luck,


s: get King Priam away from the ships without his being seen by the


s: strong force of sentinels. He hovered therefore over Priam's head


s: to have no fear about sleeping in the thick of your foes. You


s: have paid a great ransom, and have received the body of your son;


s: at home would have to give three times as much to free you; and


s: so it would be if Agamemnon and the other Achaeans were to know


s: When he heard this the old man was afraid and roused his servant.


s: went back to high Olympus, and dawn in robe of saffron began to


s: break over all the land. Priam and Idaeus then drove on toward


s: the city lamenting and making moan, and the mules drew the body


s: of Hector. No one neither man nor woman saw them, till Cassandra,


s: dear father in his chariot, and his servant that was the city's


s: herald with him. Then she saw him that was lying upon the bier,


s: drawn by the mules, and with a loud cry she went about the city


s: saying, "Come hither Trojans, men and women, and look on Hector;


s: if ever you rejoiced to see him coming from battle when he was


s: alive, look now on him that was the glory of our city and all our


s: At this there was not man nor woman left in the city, so great a


s: sorrow had possessed them. Hard by the gates they met Priam as he


s: first to mourn him: they flew towards the waggon and laid their


s: hands upon his head, while the crowd stood weeping round them.


s: They would have stayed before the gates, weeping and lamenting


s: the livelong day to the going down of the sun, had not Priam


s: spoken to them from the chariot and said, "Make way for the mules


s: On this the people stood asunder, and made a way for the waggon.


s: When they had borne the body within the house they laid it upon a


s: women joined in the sad music of their lament. Foremost among


s: them all Andromache led their wailing as she clasped the head of


s: mighty Hector in her embrace. "Husband," she cried, "you have


s: died young, and leave me in your house a widow; he of whom we are


s: not reach manhood. Ere he can do so our city will be razed and


s: overthrown, for you who watched over it are no more--you who were


s: will be carried away captives to the ships, and I among them;


s: while you, my child, who will be with me will be put to some


s: unseemly tasks, working for a cruel master. Or, may be, some


s: Achaean will hurl you (O miserable death) from our walls, to


s: avenge some brother, son, or father whom Hector slew; many of


s: them have indeed bitten the dust at his hands, for your father's


s: hand in battle was no light one. Therefore do the people mourn


s: him. You have left, O Hector, sorrow unutterable to your parents,


s: forth your arms and embrace me as you lay dying, nor say to me


s: any words that might have lived with me in my tears night and day


s: Bitterly did she weep the while, and the women joined in her


s: lament. Hecuba in her turn took up the strains of woe. "Hector,"


s: she cried, "dearest to me of all my children. So long as you were


s: been utterly unmindful of you; for when Achilles took any other


s: of my sons, he would sell him beyond the seas, to Samos Imbrus or


s: and comely as one whom Apollo has slain with his painless


s: Thus did she too speak through her tears with bitter moan, and


s: then Helen for a third time took up the strain of lamentation.


s: "Hector," said she, "dearest of all my brothers-in-law--for I am


s: wife to Alexandrus who brought me hither to Troy--would that I


s: had died ere he did so--twenty years are come and gone since I


s: left my home and came from over the sea, but I have never heard


s: one word of insult or unkindness from you. When another would


s: chide with me, as it might be one of your brothers or sisters or


s: of your brothers' wives, or my mother-in-law--for Priam was as


s: kind to me as though he were my own father--you would rebuke and


s: check them with words of gentleness and goodwill. Therefore my


s: tears flow both for you and for my unhappy self, for there is no


s: one else in Troy who is kind to me, but all shrink and shudder as


s: She wept as she spoke and the vast crowd that was gathered round


s: her joined in her lament. Then King Priam spoke to them saying,


s: "Bring wood, O Trojans, to the city, and fear no cunning ambush


s: of the Argives, for Achilles when he dismissed me from the ships


s: gave me his word that they should not attack us until the morning


s: Forthwith they yoked their oxen and mules and gathered together


s: before the city. Nine days long did they bring in great heaps of


s: wood, and on the morning of the tenth day with many tears they


s: took brave Hector forth, laid his dead body upon the summit of


s: the pile, and set the fire thereto. Then when the child of


s: morning, rosy-fingered dawn, appeared on the eleventh day, the


s: people again assembled, round the pyre of mighty Hector. When


s: they were got together, they first quenched the fire with wine


s: wherever it was burning, and then his brothers and comrades with


s: many a bitter tear gathered his white bones, wrapped them in soft


s: finished. When they had heaped up the barrow they went back again


s: Thus, then, did they celebrate the funeral of Hector tamer of


s: THE moon is a wavering rim where one fish


s: There are strange tunnelers in the dark, and whirs


s: Of wings that die, and hairy spiders spin


s: I step on shadows riding through the grass,


s: And feel the night lean cool against my face;


s: And challenged by the sentinel of space,


s: Our wee, gold-dusty flower, the yellow clover,


s: Lingering, reluctant, up that farthest hill,


s: Stooped for the blossoms closest to our feet,


s: In lieu of words too grievous to be spoken,


s: To be our tenderest language. All the years


s: The other with our homely, laureate flowers.


s: Oh, if the Blest, in their serene abodes,


s: Keep any wistful consciousness of earth,


s: Not grandeurs, but the childish ways of love,


s: With touches of vague homesickness that pass


s: Like shadows of swift birds across the grass.


s: And voice from voice, the transient dearth


s: This distance that no messages may span,


s: Or swaying to the chime of convent bell,


s: Or where the nightingales of old romance


s: Our golden cord! our soft, pursuing flame


s: For all its sunshine vanished when you died;


s: Only white clover blossoms on your grave.


s: And come she must. . .Yet while we trust


s: We soon may see the passing of this agony


s: Our homes with laughing youth were filled.


s: I LOVE to watch the world from here, for all


s: The numberless living portraits that are drawn


s: Fronting the sand, a few great yellow dunes,


s: A salt marsh stumbling after, rank and green,


s: With brackish gullies wandering in between,


s: And more: a clump of dwarfed and twisted cedars,


s: Sentinels over the marsh, and bright with the sun


s: As though a hidden serpent glided through,


s: A broken wall, a new-plowed field, and then


s: How small the enclosure is wherein there lives


s: Each phase and passion of life, the distant sail


s: From that far place to where in state the turf


s: Each little love and lust of a living thing


s: Why did I plan each terraced lawn to slope


s: Down to the deep blue billowy breast of hope,


s: Tumbling its garments of foam upon the shore,


s: Rustling the sands that know my step no more,


s: I should have found a valley, deep and still,


s: There flows the river, and it seems asleep


s: Of wind that rose and smote against the oar,


s: While I rejoiced and rowed into the brine,


s: Drawing on wet and heavy -straining line


s: What is the solace of these hills and vales


s: What is there glorious in the greenwood glen,


s: Or twittering thrush or wing of darting wren?


s: Call of the sea gull in the echoing sky,


s: The wild shriek of the winds that cannot die,


s: Give me the life that follows the bending sails,


s: AFTER the song the love, and after the love the play,


s: Beards of a former austerity, stern even now, but


s: Oh Zeus, what a sight! With the wine dripping off it,


s: The grin of an ass on a bald-pated prophet.


s: After the feast the night, and after the night the day,


s: While in each wine-throbbing, desolated brain is the


s: No wine for the brow that is beating to bursting,


s: But water at morning is quench for the thirsting!


s: OUT of one heart the birds and I together,


s: Low through the live-oaks hung heavy with silver,


s: Lute-voiced the silence with intervaled music.


s: While under the margined world the slow sun


s: Over the lilac dusk spreads his great fingers-


s: All the good gladness turns praise for the singers.


s: Hark, 'tis the breath of life!  Hush! and I need it;


s: Questing the silences, herding the sudden foam


s: They and I out of one heart that is grieving.


s: And all his world was rife with Pleasures gay,


s: And languid Follies smiled from every nook.


s: His rainbow rising from his radiant task,


s: O'er Fancy's changeful masque and counter-


s: Whereon his foster-brothers lighter tread,


s: Worthy his death-wage from the mint of time;


s: Was hearth and hope and love and wedding-


s: And solemn-hearted scholars--Sudden then


s: I cried: "The stars are no less neighborly


s: Live out our lives and speak our chosen tongue!


s: "Love seek through all--less there be one


s: I'VE been a hopeless sinner, but I understand a


s: Their bend of weary knees and their con-


s: And the endless pricks of conscience, like a hundred


s: A real perpetual penance for imaginary sins.


s: I love to wander widely, but I understand a cell,


s: Where you tell and tell your beads because you've


s: Where the crimson joy of flesh, with all its wild


s: Is forgotten in the blinding glory of the crucifix.


s: I cannot speak for others, but my inmost soul is


s: With a battle of desires making all my life forlorn.


s: There are moments when I would untread the paths


s: I'm a haunter of the devil, but I hunger after God.


s: "Alone, 'twont do; composite, would I make


s: This man-child rare; 'twere well, methinks, to take


s: A handful from the Stratford tomb, and weigh


s: Contribute, too, and, for my sweet Son's sake,


s: The whole with Wyclif-water from the Bay.


s: A sailor, he!  Too godly, though, I fear;


s: Offset it with tobacco!  Next, I'll find


s: Hedge-roses, star-dust, and a vagrant's mind;


s: His mother's heart now let me breathe upon;


s: When west winds blow, I'll whisper in her ear:


s: A Man of Sorrows! with such haunted eyes,


s: I trow, the Master looked across the lake,--


s: Looked from the Judas-heart, so soon to make


s: Great souls, great pallid ghosts of pain, who wake


s: And wander yet; all, weary men who brake


s: Their hearts; all hemlock-drunk, with growing


s: Tannhauser; Faust; Andrea; phantoms, all,


s: In Masefield's eyes you lodge; and to the wall


s: I turn you,--hand a-tremble,--lest you make


s: Of mine own stricken eyes a mirror, too.


s: Wherein the sad world's sadder for your sake.


s: O Masefield's "Dauber!" You, who being dead,


s: Yet speak: heroic, dauntless, flaming soul,


s: Too suddenly snuffed out!  Here take fresh toll


s: Serenely rest, assured that who has read


s: What you would fain have pictured of the Pole


s: Would gladly match your part against the whole


s: And more than this: if you, indeed, are his,


s: Then, by a dual truth, he, too, is yours;


s: For, marked and credited by what endures,


s: Were it the only thing, which bears his name,


s: (O deathless Soul, I speak you true in this!)


s: "The Dauber" has brought Masefield to his fame.


s: "Small wonder," speaks my pensive self, "that he


s: Whose passion 'tis to sing of men who fail,--


s: A costlier failure in Earth's shuddering tale?


s: But as I read, protesting voices cry: "Not we,


s: Who conquered Death among those blistered hills,


s: The sad, strange failure theirs who mourn in vain!"


s: So, Masefield, have your royal words once more


s: Called forth the praise of men, where praise is due;


s: Must leave all Britain prouder than before;


s: And, in spite of all that breaking hearts deplore,


s: And all that anguished consciences must rue,


s: One arrowed gladness surely pierces through


s: When England, sobbing, mourns Gallipoli,


s: And all the splendid Youth her error took


s: As hostage from the fields of daffodils,


s: You are not sleeping in those cruel hills!


s: BEFORE him rolls the dark, relentless ocean;


s: Behind him stretch the cold and barren sands;


s: Wrapt in the mantle of his deep devotion


s: The Pilgrim kneels, and clasps his lifted hands;


s: "God of our fathers, who hast safely brought us


s: Through seas and sorrows, famine, fire, and


s: Who, in Thy mercies manifold hast taught us


s: To trust in Thee, our leader and our Lord;


s: "God, who hast send Thy truth to shine before us,


s: God, who hast spread thy wings of mercy o'er us;


s: God, who hast set our children's children free,


s: "Freedom Thy new-born nation here shall cherish;


s: Earth shall decay; the firmament shall perish;


s: Freedom and Truth, immortal shall endure."


s: Daughter of Truth and mother of Courage,


s: Heart of New England, strength of the Pilgrims,


s: Athens robed in her learning and beauty,


s: Each has flourished for her little hour,


s: In their restless haste, 'Let us spend and waste,


s: It is pain to think; we will eat and drink!


s: And our laughter peals, and the mad world reels,


s: Freedom a free-born nation still shall cherish,


s: Freedom and Truth immortal shall endure."


s: Land of our fathers, when the tempest rages,


s: When the wide earth is racked with war and crime,


s: Even as the shallop on the breakers riding,


s: Even as the Pilgrim kneeling on the shore,


s: Firm in thy faith and fortitude abiding,


s: Hold thou thy children free forever more.


s: And when we sail as Pilgrims' sons and daughters


s: The spirit's Mayflower into seas unknown,


s: Driving across the waste of wintry waters


s: The Pilgrim's faith, the Pilgrim's courage grant us;


s: Still shines the truth that for the Pilgrim shone.


s: We are his seed; nor life nor death shall daunt us.


s: The port is Freedom!  Pilgrim heart, sail on!


s: (So low, dear hearts, in poverty so low!)


s: (How rest ye there, how softly, safely rest!)


s: (Sweet-throat, come back! O liquid, mellow


s: The brooding breast, the sun-bright eye,


s: O SWIFT forerunners, rosy with the race!


s: Behind your blushing banners in the sky,


s: Daring invaders of Night's tenting-ground,


s: How do ye strain on forward-bending foot,


s: With silence sandalled, so they weave their way,


s: And so they stand, with silence panoplied,


s: Chanting, through mystic symbollings of flame,


s: O changeless guardians! 0 ye wizard first!


s: What strenuous philter feeds your potency.


s: That thus ye rest, in sweet wood-hardiness,


s: What breath may move ye, or what breeze invite


s: What wind-but all the winds are yet afar,


s: And e'en the little tricksy zephyr sprites,


s: That fleet before them, like their elfin locks,


s: Have lagged in sleep, nor stir nor waken yet


s: Too still for dreaming, too divine for sleep,


s: So range the firs, the constant, fearless ones.


s: Warders of mountain secrets, there they wait,


s: Each with his cloak about him, breathless, calm.


s: And yet expectant, as who knows the dawn,


s: And all night thrills with memory and desire,


s: Searching in what has been for what shall be:


s: The chrism of dew, the coronal of flame.


s: Low in the valley lies the conquered rout


s: Of man's poor, trivial turmoil, lost and drowned


s: Under the mist, in gleaming rivers rolled,


s: Where oozy marsh contends with frothing main.


s: And rounding all, springs one full, ambient arch,


s: One great good limpid world--so still, so still!


s: For no sound echoes from its crystal curve


s: Save four clear notes, the song of that lone bird


s: Who, brave but trembling, tries his morning hymn,


s: And wonder of this pearling globe of dawn.


s: Light, light eternal! veiling-place of stars!


s: Light, the revealer of dread beauty's face!


s: Weaving whereof the hills are lambent clad!


s: Cup whereat pine-trees slake their giant thirst


s: Being and breath and potion! living soul


s: And all-informing heart of all that lives!


s: Save by its chanting: Light! and Light! and Light!


s: It grows in silence, as 'twere self-create,


s: Hangs the old moon, thin as a battered shield,


s: The holy, useless shield of long-past wars,


s: But lo! the east,--let none forget the east,


s: Pathway ordained of old where He should tread.


s: Through some sweet magic common in the skies,


s: The rosy banners are with saffron tinct;


s: The saffron grows to gold, the gold is fire,


s: Than clash of conquering arms, He comes! He comes!


s: He holds His spear benignant, sceptrewise,


s: And strikes out flame from the adoring hills.


s: BURNT are the petals of life as a rose fallen and


s: Blackened the heart of the past is, ashes that must


s: Forever be sifted, more precious than sunbeams that


s: Once was a passion completed,-too perfect, the


s: The rose of the past is, Life-Eternity's dust.


s: Faintly on damp air sounds the shepherd's horn


s: A frenziedly leaping and mingling crowd,


s: Trains of sirens, tritons, Trevi's jets heal


s: Hoarded his children in his arms and breast;


s: Her splendid eyes were vague, her lips compressed.


s: One Raphael-boy slipped from his father's knee,


s: Climbed to her side, and gently stroked her cheek,


s: She turned away, and would not hear his plea,


s: She turned away, and would not even speak.


s: With trembling lips the child crept back again


s: To the warm shelter of his father's breast;


s: We thought that mother-love bore every test.


s: In deep, low tones, "Don't t'inka hard you bet


s: The younges' was too-seeck, and he is dead,


s: She will be alla right, when she forget."


s: When she forgets!  "Great-Heart," hold closer yet


s: Thy precious brood and let it feel no lack!


s: Until her soul shall wake, but not forget,


s: When the warm tides of love come surging back.


s: To little Mag o' Monagan's a-singing in the rain.


s: The silver-slanting Irish rain, all warm and sweet that fills


s: The little brackened lowland pools, and drifts across the hills;


s: That turns the hill-grass cool and wet to dusty childish feet,


s: And hangs above the valley-roofs, filmed blue with burning peat.


s: And oh the kindly neighbor-folk that called the young ones in,


s: Down fragrant yellow-tapered paths that thread the prickly whin;


s: The hot, sweet smell of oaten-cake, the kettle purring soft,


s: The dear-remembered Irish speech-- they call to me how oft!


s: They mind me just a slip o' girl in tattered kirtle blue,


s: But oh they loved me for myself, and not for what I do!


s: And never one but had a joy to pass the time of day


s: With little Mag o' Monagan's a-laughing down the way.


s: There's fifty roofs to shelter me where one was set before,


s: But make me free to that again-- I'll not be wanting more,


s: But sure I know not tears nor gold can turn the years again


s: With blue-green crests and plumes of pride


s: That includes Mexico . . . the Azores ... Oregon ...


s: Dazzled by the yellow sea-beach of morning


s: O stately creature with tail-feathers red and


s: The short feathers smooth along your back


s: When I look at their sides through water.


s: I don't know how you happened to be made


s: Shouting all day long your crooked words,


s: With her hands in the pockets of her pinafore.


s: THE Moods have laid their hands across my hair:


s: The Moods have drawn their fingers through my heart;


s: My hair shall never more lie smooth and bright,


s: But stir like tide-worn sea-weed, and my heart


s: Shall never more be glad of small sweet things,-


s: My heart turns crying from the rose and book,


s: My heart turns crying from the thin bright moon,


s: And weeps with useless sorrow for the child.


s: The Moods have loosed a wind to vex my hair,


s: And made my heart too wise, that was a child.


s: Now I shall blow like smitten candle-flame:


s: I shall desire all things that may not be:


s: The years, the stars, the souls of ancient men,


s: All tears that must, and smiles that may not be,--


s: Yes, glimmering lights across a windy ford,


s: And holy things, and outcast things, and things,


s: Far too remote, frail-bodied to be plain.


s: I cannot sweep the strangeness from my heart.


s: The Moods have laid swift hands across my hair:


s: The Moods have drawn swift fingers through my heart.


s: High upon the mountain, where the grasses fail.


s: Where the ash-trees flourish far their blazing


s: A brown One, a hoofed One, pipes against the gale.


s: Up scrambled I then, furry fingers helping me.


s: I was on the mountain, wandering, wandering;


s: No one but the pine trees and the white birch knew.


s: Over rocks I scrambled, looked up and saw that


s: Peaked ears and sharp horns, pricked against the


s: Oh, and, how he piped there! piped upon the high


s: Till the blue air crackled like a frost-film on a pool!


s: Oh, and how he spread himself, like a child whom


s: Tumbled chuckling in the brook, all sleek and kind


s: He had berries 'twixt his horns, crimson-red as


s: Bobbing, wagging wantonly they tickled him, and oh,


s: How his deft lips puckered round the reed,


s: I said "Good-day, Thou!" He said, "Good-day,


s: Wiped his reed against the spotted doe-skin on his back,


s: He said, "Come up here, and I will teach thee piping


s: While the earth is singing so, for tunes we shall not


s: Up scrambled I. So we sat beside the cairn.


s: Broad into my face laughed that horned Thing so


s: Oh, it was a rascal of a woodland Satyr's bairn!


s: 'So blow, and so, Thou! Move thy fingers faster, look!


s: Move them like the little leaves and whirling midges.


s: Soon `twill twist like tendrils and out-twinkle like


s: Move thy fingers merrily, and blow! Blow! Blow!"


s: Brown One! Hoofed One! Beat time to keep me


s: Kick it on the red stone, whistle in my ear.


s: Brush thy crimson berries in my face, then hold


s: Joy comes bubbling to me lips. I pipe, oh, hear!


s: Blue sky, art glad of us? Green wood, art glad of


s: Old hard-heart mountain, dost thou hear me, how


s: Far away the sea-isles swim in sun-haze luminous.


s: Each one has a color like the seven-splendor bow.


s: Wind, wind, wind, dost thou mind me how I pipe,


s: Chipmunk chatt'ring in the beech, rabbit in the


s: Furry arm around my neck: "Oh, Thou art a brave


s: Satyr, little satyr-friend, my heart with joy doth


s: Sky-music, earth-music, tree-music tremulous,


s: Water over steaming rocks, water in the shade,


s: Storm-tune and sun-tune, how they flock up unto us,


s: Sitting by the red cairn, gay and unafraid!


s: Brown One, Hoofed One, give me nimble hoofs,


s: Give me furry fingers and a secret furry tail!


s: Pleasant are thy smooth horns: if their like were


s: Might I not abide here, till the strong sun fail?


s: Oh, the sorry brown eyes!  Oh, the soft kind hand-


s: Sudden brush of velvet ears across my wind-cool


s: "Play-mate, Pipe-mate, thou askest one good boon


s: I could never find thee horns, though day-long


s: "Yet, keep the pipe, Thou: I will cut another one.


s: Keep the pipe and play on it for all the world to hear.


s: Ah, but it was good once to sit together in the sun!


s: Though I have but half a soul, it finds thee very


s: "Wise Thing, Mortal Thing, yet my half-soul fears thee!


s: Take the pipe and go thy ways,--quick now, for


s: Reels across the hot west and stumbles dazzled to


s: Take the pipe, and oh-one kiss! then run, run, run! run!"


s: Silence on the mountain.  Lonely stands the high cairn,


s: All the leaves a-shivering, all the stones dead-gray.


s: O thou cold small pipe, which way is fled that


s: I am lost and all alone, and down drops the day.


s: I was on the mountain, wandering, wandering


s: There I got this Pipe o' dreams.  Strange, when


s: Something deep as human love starts a-crying,


s: I can barely distinguish them with the naked eye.


s: But to-day the cliffs are lifted, escarpt,


s: The magnificent fortified castles of Sea-kings.


s: Whence comes this scent within the Square,


s: GOD, through his offspring Nature, gave me love,


s: And taketh from my heart its life to-day,


s: As through the valley of the world I rove.


s: And strive to pluck some flowers that bloom above.


s: Oh, wherefore then doth Nature give desire


s: To have that which mankind may not possess,


s: And force him to endure on earth hell's fire,


s: And with it masquerade in Cupid's dress!


s: "Music, the language, the atmosphere of the Soul."


s: FLY back where Melodies like lilies grow,


s: Fly higher still and hear the Angel throng


s: May dwell where heaven with shining song is


s: While Sun and Moon and all the planets roll


s: I'll love thee, Music, language of my soul!


s: Music-lark from on high, song that doth fly,


s: HIGH in the apple bough jauntily swinging,


s: Straight from his heart, all his life in his singing,


s: Chants a wee bird, lures his mate with his lay.


s: Say, love, together, this bright sunny weather,


s: Gold of the west we shall weave in a nest!


s: Sunshine of May that will gild every day


s: Pledge I to thee if thou'lt harken to me."


s: Lo! in the light thro' the gay branches streaming,


s: Quivering in answer to all the bird sings,


s: Warm on a breath, leaps a soul with love gleaming,


s: Speeds to its mate on its glittering wings.


s: Loud in the singing I heard thy call ringing,


s: Pleading and strong in the voice of the song,


s: Softly revealing the depth of thy feeling,


s: Words in whose fire glow thy love and desire."


s: Send peaceful sleep, O Lord, this night,


s: This is that Bread that came down from Heaven,


s: he that eateth of this Bread shall live forever.


s: O slow of heart to believe!  Ought Christ not to


s: have suffered these things and to enter into His Glory?


s: Great Prince of Peace, come to thine own,


s: Great Prince of Peace, come to Thine own,


s: I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.


s: That beckoned clear-eyed children tanned


s: WHY should I sing of my present?  It is noth-


s: Rather I'd dream of Dixie and tie ships on the old


s: Rather I'd dream of my packets and the lazy river


s: Rather I'd dream of my levee and the crimson sunset


s: Rather I'd dream of my triumphs, of the days that


s: Rather I'd dream of flame-tipped stacks against a


s: Of level lawns of topaz, of level fields of jade,


s: Of the rambling pillared mansions that my fathers'


s: Why should I sing of my present?  It is nothing


s: But the river road, the great road, the high road to


s: Aye, that is worth the dreaming, aye, that was


s: Send me back my river, and I shall wake again!


s: 'Twas far from right,-you knew it well,-


s: Should feel such shame, that when he heard


s: Should through the crack attack the spy,


s: Would hide from all your Saintship's stain.


s: That Christ these tools had laid down too.


s: Each night when she came home she'd stand


s: Her smiles slipped into dimples, stopped


s: Then straightened from his hoe, and hummed,


s: Jest where they cum from, who they ware,


s: "An' no one's lived in thet house sence;


s: That it will gently press the brown earth down


s: Cool autumn winds, pale dew-kissed flowers,


s: Shrill songs of birds and children's laughter,


s: And there, while soft-hued beauty reigns


s: TRAVELING at dusk the noisy city street,


s: I listened to the newsboys' strident cries


s: They strove to gain this man or that-their prize.


s: But one there was with neither shout nor stride,


s: And, having bought from him, I stood nearby,


s: Pondering the cruel crutches at his side,


s: Blaming the crowd's neglect, and wondering why-


s: When suddenly I heard a gruff voice greet


s: The Youngster's answer-"You're all right.


s: They'll find I'm short one paper when they come;


s: You see, a strange guy bought one in the wait,


s: I tho't 'twould cheer him up-he looked so glum!"


s: So, sheepishly I laughed, and went my way


s: For I had found a city's heart that day.


s: But down their dream there drifts no sound,


s: There's nothing, nothing, nothing, I say,


s: MARY, the Christ long slain, passed silently.


s: Pausing to let their laughter float to her.


s: Each voice an echo of a voice more dear,


s: Yearned o'er the tender life that filled the place.


s: And Mary sought the woman's hand, and spoke:


s: "I know thee not, yet know thy memory tossed


s: With all a thousand dreams their eyes evoke


s: Who bring to thee a child beloved and lost.


s: And said, when Mary questioned, knowing not,


s: "Who art thou, mother of so sweet a flower?"


s: The certain resurrection that shall bring


s: Thy perfumed valleys where the twilights dwell,


s: Thy fields within the sunlight's living coil


s: Now promise, while the veins of nature swell,


s: And when the sunset's final shades depart


s: Is sweet and silent; as the soft tears start,


s: Are all the passions of our bleeding heart


s: That vex the awful patience of the earth.


s: Thine are the large winds and the splendid sun


s: Glutting the spread of heaven to the floor


s: Of waters rhythmic from far shore to shore,


s: And thine the stars, revealing one by one,


s: Thine the grave, lucent night's oblivion,


s: The tawny moon that waits below the skies,--


s: Strange as the dawn that smote their blistered eyes


s: Who watched from Calvary when the Deed was done.


s: And thine the good brown earth that bares its


s: Lusty with fruitage in the late year's rest;


s: And thine the men whos@ blood has glorified


s: Thy name with Liberty Is divine decrees-


s: The men who loved thy soil and fought and died.


s: Toward thine Eastern window when the morn


s: Steals through the silver mesh of silent stars,


s: I come unlaurelled from the strenuous wars


s: But here, across the early fields of corn,


s: The living silence dwelleth, and the gray


s: Sweet earth-mist, while afar the lisp of spray


s: Breathes from the ocean like a Triton's horn.


s: For which this earth has journeyed though the


s: Of shattered systems, cold about the sun;


s: And proved by sin, by mighty lives impearled,


s: A voice cries through the sunrise: "Time is


s: And falls like dew God's pity on the world


s: This is the song of the wave! The mighty one!


s: Child of the soul of silence, beating the air to


s: White as a live terror, as a drawn sword,


s: This is the song of the wave, the white-maned steed


s: This is the song of the wave!  The dawn leaped out


s: And the waters lay smooth as a silver shield,


s: And the sun-rays smote on the waters like a golden


s: This is the song of the wave! The wind blew out of the noon


s: And the white sea-birds like driven foam


s: Winged in from the ocean that lay beyond the sky


s: And the face of the waters was barred with white,


s: This is the song of the wave! The wind blew out


s: The black clouds closed like a tomb, for the sun was


s: Then the wind smote full as the breath of God,


s: This is the song of the wave, that rises to fall,


s: Rises a sheer green wall like a barrier of glass


s: That has caught the soul of the moonlight.


s: This is the song of the wave, of the wave that falls-


s: Wild as a burst of day-gold blown through the


s: It shivers to infinite atoms up the rumbling steep


s: This is the song of the wave that died in the fullness


s: The prodigal this, that lavished its largess of


s: Sure in the pride of life, in the richness of strength.


s: So tried it the impossible height, till the end was


s: Where ends the soul that yearns for the fillet of


s: The soul in the toils of the journeying worlds,


s: Whose eye is filled with the Image of God,


s: Standing alone in a withered desolation.


s: The garden plants are shattered and seeded,


s: One brittle leaf scrapes against another,


s: When I scarcely see you in the flat moonlight,


s: I cannot rest in fear of what may happen.


s: Are blowing, and the bright blue squills.


s: Tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned shoes.


s: And one small flower has dropped upon my bosom.


s: Is the softness of a woman bathing in a marble


s: So thick, she cannot see her lover hiding,


s: I should like to see it lying in a heap upon the


s: All the pink and silver crumpled up upon the ground.


s: I would be the pink and silver as I ran along the paths,


s: I should see the sun flashing from his sword hilt


s: To lead him in a maze along the patterned paths,


s: A bright and laughing maze for my heavy-booted


s: And the buttons of his waistcoat bruised my body


s: With the shadows of the leaves and the sundrops,


s: It was brought to me this morning by a rider from


s: "Madam, we regret to inform you that Lord Hart-


s: As I read it in the white morning sunlight.


s: "See that the messenger takes some refreshment.


s: The blue and yellow flowers stood up proudly in


s: In a month be would have been my husband,


s: And I answered, "It shall be as you have said."


s: Will give place to pillared roses, and to asters,


s: And the softness of my body will be guarded from


s: For the man who should loose me is dead,


s: THICK dappled by circles of sunshine and


s: Your bright, naked body advances, blown over by


s: Half-quenched in their various green, just a point


s: A knee or a thigh, sudden glimpsed, then at once


s: The filmy and flickering forest, to start out again


s: Triumphant in smooth, supple roundness, edged


s: Cool, perfect, with rose rarely tinting your lips and


s: Swelling out from the green in the opulent curves


s: And hidden, like fruit, by the swift intermittence


s: So, clinging to branches and moss, you advance on the ledges


s: Of rock which hang over the stream, with the


s: The pungence of strawberry plants and of gum-


s: While below runs the water impatient, impatient-


s: To splash you, to run down your sides, to sing you


s: Of pools brown and golden, with brown-and-gold


s: Of blue, lingering skies floating solemnly over your


s: Of undulant waters a-sway in the effort to hold you


s: To keep you submerged and quiescent while over


s: Woman, clad only in youth and in gallant perfection,


s: Standing up in a great burst of sunshine, you


s: Like a snow-star, a moon, your effulgence burns up


s: For you are the chalice which holds all the races of


s: You slip into the pool and the water folds over your


s: And over the tree-tops the clouds slowly follow


s: your swimming, To behold the way they act.


s: And the scent of the woods is sweet on this hot


s: WHEN the time for parting comes, and the


s: And the silent evening darkens over hill and over


s: And earth holds no more sorrow, no more grief,


s: Shall we weary for the battle and the strife?


s: When at last the trail is ending, and the stars are


s: And we breathe the breath of conquest, and the


s: Are the great companions' voices that have hallowed


s: Shall we know an instant's grieving as we pass?


s: Shall we pause a fleeting moment ere we grasp


s: Take one last long look of wonder at the dimming


s: Love the earth one glowing moment ere we pass from


s: Cull all beauty in its essence as we gaze?


s: Or with not one backward longing shall we leap the


s: Scale the highest crags glad-hearted, fearful only


s: Of an earth-remembering instant should delay the


s: What triumphs of celestial wonders wrought,


s: What marvels from a breath of beauty rolled!


s: Skyward and seaward on the clouds are scrolled,


s: A thousand worlds to lose,--or win and mould--


s: Blue wonder of the sea and luminous sky,


s: A thousand wonders in thy dreamlit face,--


s: Of Ilium, and the transient mortal grace


s: Of Deirdre's sadness, all the conquering race


s: Of Athens, --eyes that saw Eden's beauty lie


s: That wrecked a city and made chieftains die.


s: Forward not backward turns the mystic shine


s: Of those far-seeing orbs that track the gleam-


s: O lad, who buildest not of things that seem,


s: Came that far smile, from what long-strayed sun-


s: Caught thou the radiance, from what fostering vine


s: The power to build and mould the deep design?


s: Knowest thou the secret that thy brush would tell,


s: Is all the dream a bubbled splendor white,


s: Beyond those castles cloud-bound, does there dwell


s: The eternal silence of the dark--or light?


s: Will thy hand hold the pen which shall indict


s: The symboled mystery-write the final knell


s: Of gleaming bubbles wrought of beauty's shell?


s: Of Youth's short golden dream is lord and king.


s: Were never meant to paint the immortal thing


s: They see, nor understand the joy they bring.


s: Sail on.  Dream still, bright-visioned boy, and fling


s: The glittering mantle of thy thoughts that flee,


s: Weaving us evermore thy shining pageantry.


s: Some heard a lost bird riding out the night,


s: Two wings of flame from the green cloud rack,


s: With the long low sound of a life in grief!


s: Green golden door, swing out, swing out!


s: FOUR graves there are upon the wooded crest,


s: Each one a shrine to pilgrims ever dear.


s: Uncovered, mute, are those who tarry here.


s: Beneath the cedars.  Near is one whose breast


s: Held Mother Nature's lore.  Beyond, the seer


s: And sage.  There, one who saw her duty clear,


s: Her name by little men and women blessed.


s: Four friends who walked in Concord's pleasant ways


s: Long years ago.  They dwelt and worked apart,


s: But now the world has crowned them with its bays,


s: And holds them close forever to its heart.


s: O, sacred hill!  There Genius, guarding stays,


s: And from its slopes shall never Love depart!


s: The sleep that comes when strife is done


s: He should have drawn that wondrous blade


s: To where the blackened leaves are mold. . .


s: The lone gift of the forest is ever new:


s: Once the forest spoke but now is silent,


s: Save in the skyward branches whence no sound


s: Or else no longer the man knows how to hear.


s: Such men build roofs to keep the forest out,


s: Yet all their roofs are built of the forest's self;


s: Only they make the dead tree a shield against the


s: Such lapsing of the forest then they use


s: And turn it into countless lowly dwellings;


s: To leaven the dead roofs they would erect.


s: Though some of these low roofs are lovely there


s: Beneath the guardianship of forest trees,


s: And some yearn upward as with thought of wings,


s: Yet the eyes of the dwellers therein are dark


s: Fearful of the windy freedom of its top.


s: And that it was a tree that made a Cross.


s: And sang out loud: "Heigh! come with me!"


s: Talked pleasant things in singing words.


s: And float beyond the waters of the world,


s: The light of evening slipping from my side,


s: Thy softened voice in waves of silence furled.


s: Drowning the land in color. Then on high


s: Like to a poplar straight against the sky.


s: Who comes with Silence up the coloured vale,


s: Treading low gently, clad in greyish white,


s: Poignantly piping, sound your reedy wail!


s: Tended by Twilight and, in deepest rose,


s: The splendid Sunset melts beneath the main


s: While sweet the Sea-wind with cool softness blows.


s: The child who frets for Dad's remembered smart,


s: Now Light fades quickly in the ashen west,


s: And Night-Peace falls across my troubled heart.


s: Flutes, for the night through let my mind be still,


s: And God keep safe with Him my stubborn will!


s: And bleeding furrows with their sodden yield


s: With all the garnered fulness of that noon--


s: One was a Woman men called their mother;


s: On those unquiet gleanings where they bled;


s: We should laugh now together, I and you,


s: A star's while to look on and light the Earth;


s: Glory it was, and gladness, to give birth


s: I called you once Dead World, and barren thing,


s: Striving awhile, through many a bleeding dune


s: Of her arm's weariness she gave no sign,


s: That none might see or guess it held no wine.


s: FORGIVE me not! Hate me and I shall know


s: Some of Love's fire still burns within your breast!


s: Forgiveness finds its home in hearts at rest,


s: ONE deep red rose I dropped into his grave,


s: So small a thing to give so great a friend!


s: STAY, flaming rose, 'twould grieve her heart


s: ("The air from the sea came blowing in again,


s: mixed with the perfume of the flowers. . . .


s: The old-fashioned furniture brightly rubbed and pol-


s: ished, my aunt's inviolable chair and table by the


s: round green fan in the bow-window, the drugget-


s: covered carpet, the cat, the kettle-holder, the two


s: canaries, the old china ... and, wonderfully out of


s: keeping with the rest, my dusty self upon the sofa,


s: With artist strokes, clear-cut and free-


s: And dreamed there came, to bless her son,


s: Fine-flex'd and fluent from Earth's mass.


s: And impulse craves with thee, Sea Waves!-


s: With throbbing of warm breasts that dare!


s: NIGHT of infinite power and infinite silence and


s: From you may mortals infer, if ever, the scope


s: The jealous sun conceals all but his arrogant face,


s: You bid the Milky Way and a million suns to shine.


s: Each star to numberless planets gives light and


s: But you enmantle them all, the nearest and most remote;


s: And the lustres of all the suns are but spangles


s: Mere bubbles and beads of noon, they circle and


s: Where nature was quiescent in the glimmering


s: One heard but the deep breathing of the ocean,


s: As it breathed along the shore in even motion.


s: Among the pines and listless of the scene,


s: Doffing her robe, the maid stood in her beauty,


s: He had not known that flesh could be so fair;


s: She looked into his eyes, then dropping hers


s: Softly turned and crept with sunlit shoulders


s: Tossed back the dripping locks, and sought her


s: All through my veins there flows your blood,


s: Swept down the singing lanes with a cool wave;


s: Aside your love that once burned as a flame.


s: That bares its bosom to the summer shower


s: And to the unremembered winds that came.


s: In the far years, when some day I shall turn


s: Toward this strong path up to our little door


s: No sound of your warm voice the winds have borne-


s: Long have they slept. Their separate dust


s: So swiftly caught in Beauty's shimmering


s: Whose slender fibres, woven, held by me,


s: With their frail strength my following heart have


s: Yea, not all mortal, not all death my mind,


s: When, watching by lone twilight waters' brim


s: Her deathless hieroglyphs, though strange and dim.


s: So for this faith, when Thou my dust shalt bring


s: To dust, remember well, Great Alchemist,


s: Yearly to change my wintry earth to spring,


s: That I with Beauty still may keep my tryst.


s: In the days of my youth, in the first of my


s: We were dear; we were leal; O, far we went


s: Now never a heart to my heart comes homing!--


s: Who taught me bare-back, stirrup and reins?


s: I love him; he loved me; my beautiful, tender


s: Where is he now whose eyes swam brighter,


s: Softer than love, in his turbulent charms;


s: Who taught me to strike, and to fall, dear fighter,


s: Taught me the rifle, and with me went riding,


s: Where is he now, for whom my heart's biding,


s: When the breath of life with a throb turns human,


s: And a lad's heart is to a lad's heart set?


s: They shall cling, nor each from other shall part


s: Till the reign of the stars in the heavens be 'over,


s: And life is dust in each faithful heart.


s: They are dead, the American grasses under;


s: There is no one now who presses my side;


s: By the African chotts I am riding asunder,


s: And with great joy ride I the last great ride.


s: Thousands of miles there is no one near;


s: And my heart--all the night it is crying, crying


s: In the bosoms of dead lads darling-dear.


s: Hearts of my music--them dark earth covers;


s: Comrades to die, and to die for, were they;


s: In the width of the world there were no such rovers--


s: Back to back, breast to breast, it was ours to stay;


s: And the highest on earth was the vow that we cherished,


s: To spur forth from the crowd and come back


s: And to ride in the track of great souls perished


s: Till the nests of the lark shall roof us o'er.


s: Yet lingers a horseman on Altai highlands,


s: Who hath joy of me, riding the Tartar glissade,


s: Whose blood yet glints with my blade's accolade;


s: North, west, east, I fling you my last hallooing,


s: Last love to the breasts where my own has bled;


s: Through the reach of the desert my soul leaps pursuing


s: My star where it rises a Star of the Dead.


s: Take wings of love, that mounts the most:


s: Old thoughts, old instincts, old desires,


s: "For I will course through falling years


s: "I think you are very, very ill to-night, my dear!"


s: "Send for my sister.  My feet are so cold.  Lift me up?"


s: Why shouldst thou fear the beautiful angel, Death,


s: Who waits thee at the portals of the skies,


s: Ready to kiss away thy struggling breath,


s: Ready with gentle hand to close thine eyes?


s: Oh what were life, if life were all?  Thine eyes


s: Are blinded by their tears, or thou wouldst see


s: Thy treasures wait thee in the far-off skies,


s: And Death, thy friend, will give them all to thee.


s: Trembling hearts that feared the morrow,


s: Stilled the little heart's quick fluttering,


s: Coming home through green lanes, bearing


s: There were sparkling fountains glancing,


s: Passed them through the stern cold grating,


s: "And he smiled, though they were fading;


s: When dark days have come, and friendship


s: A scar, brought from some well-won field,


s: Where thou wouldst only faint and yield.


s: The look, the air, that frets thy sight,


s: Whose glance would scorch thy smiling grace,


s: With the red cross on their breast-plates,


s: Ah, that dream!  Long years that gave me


s: Old and young, all brought their troubles,


s: A warning, and while others mourned him,


s: How she drooped!  Years passed; no tidings


s: Before I peril all for thee, question thy soul to-night for me.


s: Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe,


s: If so, at any pain or cost, oh, tell me before all is lost.


s: Let no false pity spare the blow, but in true mercy tell me so.


s: Whatever on my heart may fall--remember I would risk it all!


s: His name shone bright through blood and pain,


s: His sword flashed back their praise again.


s: Some scoffed, some praised--while many heard,


s: Spare her at least: look, you have taken from me


s: The Present, and I murmur not, nor moan;


s: The Future too, with all her glorious promise;


s: Spare me the Past--for, see, she cannot harm you,


s: She lies so white and cold, wrapped in her shroud;


s: All, all my own! and, trust me, I will hide her


s: And strewed my flowers upon her--they still live--


s: Sometimes I like to kiss her closed white eye-lids,


s: And think of all the joy she used to give.


s: Cruel indeed it were to take her from me;


s: She sleeps, she will not wake--no fear--again:


s: And so I laid her, such a gentle burthen,


s: I do not think that any smiling Present,


s: Any vague Future, spite of all her charms,


s: Could ever rival her.  You know you laid her,


s: Long years ago, then living, in my arms.


s: Leave her at least--while my tears fall upon her,


s: I dream she smiles, just as she did of yore;


s: Even dearer still--since I have nothing more.


s: Perchance upon some bleak and stormy shore.


s: To bring them to their northern homes once more.


s: In the cold tomb, heedless of tears or rain.


s: To breathe and smile upon you soon again.


s: Will dreary hours never leave the earth?


s: Shall wake the summer into golden mirth.


s: What sound can break the silence of despair?


s: Nor heard, while with those mighty dead,


s: Now Time has fled--the world is strange,


s: Then he turned, and, flushed with victory


s: Linger, oh, radiant grace of bright To-day!


s: But linger near me still with fond delay.


s: What dearer treasures can the future hold?


s: What secrets tell my heart thou hast not told?


s: For shadows gather round, and should we part,


s: Then pause and linger yet ere thou depart.


s: All that I hold from thee and call my own?


s: This voyage would have been my last one,


s: Strange looked the bleak mountain passes,


s: And the glimmering stars, (though brighter,)


s: Joy, bright stranger, breaks the strings.


s: That God would ever guard and bless her--


s: Where the foes are gathered on every hand,


s: Takes banner and spear from our failing hand,


s: "Let me die, Father!  I tremble and fear


s: "The crown must be won for Heaven, dear,


s: My child, though thy foes are strong and tried,


s: And thy gold shall return more precious,


s: By your heart's calm strength in loving,


s: And it brings the last groan they uttered,


s: It has been where the icebergs were meeting,


s: It has heard the bay of the bloodhounds,


s: Where the sledge was urged to its speed,


s: He learnt the tasks they taught him there;


s: Wreathed through long ages for his name.


s: She strewed his morning path with flowers,


s: O World, both gifts were pure and bright,


s: A smiling look she had, a figure slight,


s: With cheerful air, and step both quick and light;


s: A strange and foreign look the maiden bore,


s: That suited the quaint Belgian dress she wore


s: Yet the blue fearless eyes in her fair face,


s: And her soft voice told her of English race;


s: She sang, (or murmured, rather,) soft and low,


s: Snatches of song, as if she did not know


s: That she was singing, but the happy load


s: Of dream and thought thus from her heart o'erflowed:


s: And while on household cares she passed along,


s: The air would bear me fragments of her song;


s: Not such as village maidens sing, and few


s: Chants such as heaven and earth first heard of when


s: But I with awe had often turned the page,


s: Yellow with time, and half defaced by age,


s: And listened, with an ear not quite unskilled,


s: While heart and soul to the grand echo thrilled;


s: And much I marvelled, as her cadence fell


s: Had learned such deep and solemn harmony.


s: But what she told I set in rhyme, as meet


s: To chronicle the influence, dim and sweet,


s: 'Neath which her young and innocent life had grown:


s: Would that my words were simple as her own.


s: Many years since, an English workman went


s: Where English skill was prized; nor toiled in vain;


s: Small, yet enough, his hard-earned daily gain.


s: He mixed not with the workers by his side;


s: He seemed to care but for one present joy--


s: To tend, to watch, to teach his sickly boy.


s: He softened his rough speech to soothings mild;


s: For him he smiled, with him each day he walked


s: Through the dark gloomy streets; to him he talked


s: Of home, of England, and strange stories told


s: And, (when the sunset gilded roof and spire,)


s: The marvellous tale which never seemed to tire:


s: How the gilt dragon, glaring fiercely down


s: From the great belfry, watching all the town,


s: Was brought, a trophy of the wars divine,


s: And given to Bruges; and how Ghent arose,


s: And how they struggled long as deadly foes,


s: Till Ghent, one night, by a brave soldier's skill,


s: Stole the great dragon; and she keeps it still.


s: One day the dragon--so 'tis said--will rise,


s: Spread his bright wines, and glitter in the skies.


s: Will seek his home 'mid palm and cedar trees.


s: The boy would look if it were flown away;


s: Each day surprised to find it watching there,


s: Above him, as he crossed the ancient square,


s: To seek the great cathedral, that had grown


s: St. Bavon stands, solemn and rich and vast;


s: The slender pillars, in long vistas spread,


s: Like forest arches meet and close o'erhead;


s: So high that, like a weak and doubting prayer,


s: Ere it can float to the carved angels there,


s: The silver clouded incense faints in air:


s: Only the organ's voice, with peal on peal,


s: Can mount to where those far-off angels kneel.


s: Here the pale boy, beneath a low side-arch,


s: Would listen to its solemn chant or march;


s: Folding his little hands, his simple prayer


s: Melted in childish dreams, and both in air:


s: While the great organ over all would roll,


s: Speaking strange secrets to his innocent soul,


s: Of all the kneeling throng, and piercing higher


s: Than aught but love and prayer can reach, until


s: Only the silence seemed to listen still;


s: Or gathering like a sea still more and more,


s: Break in melodious waves at heaven's door,


s: And then fall, slow and soft, in tender rain,


s: Then he would watch the rosy sunlight glow,


s: That crept along the marble floor below,


s: Passing, as life does, with the passing hours,


s: Now by a shrine all rich with gems and flowers,


s: Then, leaving it again to shade and gloom,


s: And creeping on, to show, distinct and quaint,


s: The kneeling figure of some marble saint:


s: Or lighting up the carvings strange and rare,


s: That told of patient toil, and reverent care;


s: Ivy that trembled on the spray, and ears,


s: Of heavy corn, and slender bulrush spears,


s: And all the thousand tangled weeds that grow


s: In summer, where the silver rivers flow;


s: And demon-heads grotesque, that seemed to glare


s: In impotent wrath on all the beauty there:


s: Then the gold rays up pillared shaft would climb,


s: And so be drawn to heaven, at evening time.


s: And deeper silence, darker shadows flowed


s: With blazoned glory, like the shields of light


s: Archangels bear, who, armed with love and might,


s: Watch upon heaven's battlements at night.


s: Then all was shade; the silver lamps that gleamed,


s: Lost in the daylight, in the darkness seemed


s: Like sparks of fire in the dim aisles to shine,


s: Or trembling stars before each separate shrine.


s: Grown half afraid, the child would leave them there,


s: And come out, blinded by the noisy glare


s: That burst upon him from the busy square.


s: The church was thus his home for rest or play,


s: The pictured faces that he knew so well,


s: Seemed to smile on him welcome and farewell.


s: One sacred spot his own he loved to call;


s: Save at mid-day, half-hidden by the gloom;


s: The people call it The White Maiden's Tomb:


s: For there she stands; her folded hands are pressed


s: Together, and laid softly on her breast,


s: From the dull earth, and pass to the blue skies;


s: Her lips expectant part, she holds her breath,


s: As listening for the angel voice of death.


s: None know how many years have seen her so,


s: Or what the name of her who sleeps below.


s: And here the child would come, and strive to trace,


s: Through the dim twilight, the pure gentle face


s: He loved so well, and here he oft would bring


s: Some violet blossom of the early spring;


s: And climbing softly by the fretted stand,


s: Or, whispering a soft loving message sweet,


s: Would stoop and kiss the little marble feet.


s: So, when the organ's pealing music rang,


s: He thought amid the gloom the Maiden sang;


s: With reverent simple faith by her he knelt,


s: And fancied what she thought, and what she felt.


s: "Glory to God," re-echoed from her voice,


s: And then his little spirit would rejoice;


s: Or when the Requiem sobbed upon the air,


s: His baby tears dropped with her mournful prayer.


s: So years fled on, while childish fancies past,


s: The childish love and simple faith could last.


s: Of genius, like the light of Heaven, came


s: Upon his brain, and (as it will, if true)


s: It touched his heart and lit his spirit, too


s: His father saw, and with a proud content


s: Let him forsake the toil where he had spent


s: His youth's first years, and on one happy day


s: Of pride, before the old man passed away,


s: He stood with quivering lips, and the big tears


s: Upon his cheek, and heard the dream of years


s: The low hushed murmur at the wondrous art


s: Of him, who with young trembling fingers made


s: The great church-organ answer as he played;


s: And, as the uncertain sound grew full and strong,


s: Rush with harmonious spirit-wings along,


s: And thrill with master-power the breathless throng.


s: The old man died, and years passed on, and still


s: The young musician bent his heart and will


s: To his dear toil.  St. Bavon now had grown


s: More dear to him, and even more his own;


s: Kneeling once more within the sacred gloom


s: Where the White Maiden watched upon her tomb.


s: His hopes of travel and a world-wide fame,


s: Cold Time had sobered, and his fragile frame;


s: Content that the poor dwellers by his side


s: Saw in him but the gentle friend and guide,


s: The patient counsellor in the poor strife


s: Who comforted where woe and grief might fall,


s: But whose great heart took in and felt for all.


s: One day a voice floated so pure and free


s: What angel sang, and saw before his eyes,


s: What made his heart leap with a strange surprise,


s: His own White Maiden, calm, and pure, and mild,


s: As in his childish dreams she sang and smiled;


s: Her eyes raised up to Heaven, her lips apart,


s: But the faint blush that tinged her cheek betrayed


s: Perplexed and startled at his wondering look,


s: Her rustling score of Mozart's Sanctus shook;


s: The uncertain notes, like birds within a snare,


s: Fluttered and died upon the trembling air.


s: Days passed; each morning saw the maiden stand,


s: Her eyes cast down, her lesson in her hand,


s: Of her kind master; days and months fled on;


s: One day the pupil from the choir was gone;


s: Gone to take light, and joy, and youth once more,


s: The debt so many owed his generous heart.


s: And now, indeed, was one who knew and felt


s: That a great gift of God within him dwelt;


s: One who could listen, who could understand,


s: Whose idle work dropped from her slackened hand,


s: While with wet eyes entranced she stood, nor knew


s: Who loved his art as none had loved before,


s: Yet prized the noble tender spirit more.


s: While the great organ brought from far and near


s: Unmarked by aught save what filled every day,


s: Duty, and toil, and rest, years passed away:


s: Who, through the great cathedral learned to roam,


s: Climb to the choir, and bring her father home;


s: And stand, demure and solemn by his side,


s: Then place her little hand in his, and go


s: Down the dark winding stair to where below


s: The mother knelt, within the gathering gloom


s: Waiting and praying by the Maiden's Tomb.


s: So their life went, until, one winter's day,


s: Father and child came there alone to pray--


s: Their life was altered now, and yet the child


s: Forgot her passionate grief in time, and smiled,


s: Half wondering why, when spring's fresh breezes came,


s: Half guessing at the shadow of his pain,


s: A sad cold smile, that passed in tears away,


s: As re-assured she ran once more to play.


s: And now each year that added grace to grace,


s: Fresh bloom and sunshine to the young girl's face,


s: Brought a strange light in the musician's eyes,


s: Breaking upon the midnight of sad skies.


s: It might be so: more feeble year by year,


s: The wanderer to his resting-place drew near.


s: One day the Gloria he could play no more,


s: His hands were clasped, his weary head was laid,


s: Upon the tomb where the White Maiden prayed:


s: Where the child's love first dawned, his soul first spoke,


s: The old man's heart there throbbed its last and broke.


s: The grave cathedral that had nursed his youth,


s: Had helped his dreaming, and had taught him truth,


s: Had seen his boyish grief and baby tears,


s: And watched the sorrows and the joys of years,


s: Had lit his fame and hope with sacred rays,


s: Had blessed his happiness, and soothed his pain,


s: Now took her faithful servant home again.


s: He rests in peace: some travellers mention yet


s: By poor men's hearths, who love and bless the name


s: Of a kind friend; and in low tones to-day,


s: Too poor to help the daughter of their friend,


s: They grieved to see the little pittance end;


s: To see her toil and strive with cheerful heart,


s: To bear the lonely orphan's struggling part;


s: They grieved to see her go at last alone


s: And here she came; the foreign girl soon found


s: Welcome, and love, and plenty all around,


s: And here she pays it back with earnest will,


s: By well-taught housewife watchfulness and skill;


s: Deep in her heart she holds her father's name,


s: And tenderly and proudly keeps his fame;


s: And while she works with thrifty Belgian care,


s: Past dreams of childhood float upon the air;


s: Some strange old chant, or solemn Latin hymn,


s: That echoed through the old cathedral dim,


s: When as a little child each day she went


s: To kneel and pray by an old tomb in Ghent.


s: Why shouldst thou fear the beautiful angel, Death,


s: Who waits thee at the portals of the skies,


s: Ready to kiss away thy struggling breath,


s: Ready with gentle hand to close thine eyes?


s: How many a tranquil soul has passed away,


s: Fled gladly from fierce pain and pleasures dim,


s: And many a troubled heart still calls for him.


s: Have turned from life, its hopes, its fears, its charms;


s: And children, shuddering at a world so drear,


s: He whom thou fearest will, to ease its pain,


s: Lay his cold hand upon thy aching heart:


s: Will soothe the terrors of thy troubled brain,


s: And bid the shadow of earth's grief depart.


s: He will give back what neither time, nor might,


s: Nor passionate prayer, nor longing hope restore.


s: (Dear as to long blind eyes recovered sight,)


s: He will give back those who are gone before.


s: Oh, what were life, if life were all?  Thine eyes


s: Are blinded by their tears, or thou wouldst see


s: Thy treasures wait thee in the far-off skies,


s: And Death, thy friend, will give them all to thee.


s: And the dream that I spun was so lengthy,


s: There was nothing but glistening dewdrops


s: Will not fade when you think to grasp it,


s: Will not come with its radiance vanished,


s: The flowers have closed their tender leaves and die;


s: The rose's trembling leaves will soon be shed,


s: The gentle Summer, with her balmy breath,


s: And brighter every day the smile she wore!


s: How many half-blown buds must close and die;


s: And leave us desolate and Earth forlorn!


s: "Help, Lord," she cried, "the shades of death


s: What voice came through the sacred air?--


s: Have I not watched and wept?" she cried;


s: Break Thou the chains of earth, oh Lord,


s: That sacred flame Thy Saints have known,


s: They come--the cloud of dust draws near--


s: From all those flowers so fair and bright,


s: From the humming of bees in the heather,


s: When dark and weary hours have tried us?


s: While Heaven nor Earth have never heard,


s: Because it leads and tends to farther sweetness,


s: Spring's real glory dwells not in the meaning,


s: Gracious though it be, of her blue hours;


s: To the Summer's richer wealth of flowers.


s: Dawn is fair, because the mists fade slowly


s: Into Day, which floods the world with light;


s: Childhood's smiles unconscious graces borrow


s: From Strife, that in a far-off future lies;


s: And angel glances (veiled now by Life's sorrow)


s: Do not call each glorious change, Decay;


s: But know we only hold our treasures truly,


s: Nor dare to blame God's gifts for incompleteness;


s: In that want their beauty lies: they roll


s: Towards some infinite depth of love and sweetness,


s: While farmers, heedless of their fields,


s: Where, in spite of the coward's doubting,


s: Through the black night and driving rain,


s: The thunders roar, the lightnings glare,


s: "The storm will wake the child," they said:-


s: He prays, his blue eyes dim with fright,


s: He is travelling fast like the whirlwind,


s: I have toiled through the sunny woodland,


s: Through fields that basked in the light;


s: And through the lone paths in the forest


s: Where Love once has breathed, Pride dieth:


s: Not even the words that you have spoken,


s: You may stretch your hands out towards me,--


s: Down through the times when Truth and Right


s: (When the brown leaves were falling fast


s: "They come!" and, slackening speed, they came.


s: Pranced on their horses through the gate;


s: All decked with trappings blue and white,


s: Drew through the crowd that opened wide,


s: (Like stars that shone in summer skies,)


s: With all their freight of love and pain:


s: Strange things of her our neighbours told


s: Some said 'twas false; there could not be


s: Shone through the mist of grief, her charms;


s: Raised to such height of bliss, should seem


s: Then down her white robes seemed to flit,


s: My childish thoughts e'er cared to know:


s: Of the strange dreams that she had known.


s: You, too, would love her.  The mere thought


s: Fresh stars shine out, and more and more,


s: Fresh words, fresh tones, fresh memories start


s: She paused; then, with a quivering sigh,


s: With stones that shone and burnt like flame;


s: Wound round her neck, like some bright snake,


s: Nor wore such sparkling stones of flame."


s: Scarce showed the gloomy splendour there.


s: And in the strange and flickering light,


s: She lay; (one would have said she slept;)


s: She strove to speak, and strove in vain;


s: The throbs that seemed to shake her breast,


s: (And here her voice grew faint and low,)


s: Will pierce the highest heavens through,


s: Last night, when weary silence fell on all,


s: And starless skies arose so dim and vast,


s: Far off and near, I saw their radiance shine,


s: And listened while they spoke of deeds divine.


s: Day dawned; and as the Spirits passed away,


s: Methought I saw, in the dim morning grey,


s: The Past's bright diadem had paled before


s: The starry crown the glorious Present wore.


s: Shall violets bloom for thee, and sweet birds sing;


s: And the lime branches where soft winds are blowing,


s: Shall murmur the sweet promise of the Spring!


s: Thou shalt behold the quiet of the morn;


s: While tender grasses and awakening flowers


s: Send up a golden mist to greet the dawn!


s: The tenderness of twilight shall be thine,


s: The rosy clouds that float o'er dying daylight,


s: Nor fade till trembling stars begin to shine.


s: Shall starry night be beautiful for thee;


s: And the cold moon shall look through the blue silence,


s: Life shall be thine; life with its power to will;


s: Life with its strength to bear, to love, to conquer,


s: Bringing its thousand joys thy heart to fill.


s: The voices thou hast loved shall charm thine ear;


s: And thy true heart, that now beats quick to hear them,


s: A little longer yet shall hold them dear.


s: A little longer yet--joy while thou mayest;


s: Love and rejoice! for time has nought in store;


s: And soon the darkness of the grave shall bid thee


s: Love and rejoice and feel and know no more.


s: A little longer still--Patience, Beloved:


s: A little longer still, ere Heaven unroll


s: Eternal, and divine, that waits thy Soul!


s: A little longer ere Life true, immortal,


s: (Not this our shadowy Life,) will be thine own;


s: And thou shalt stand where winged Archangels worship,


s: And trembling bow before the Great White Throne.


s: A little longer still, and Heaven awaits thee,


s: And fills thy spirit with a great delight;


s: Then our pale joys will seem a dream forgotten,


s: Our Sun a darkness, and our Day a Night.


s: A little longer, and thy Heart, Beloved,


s: No creature knows and lives, will then be thine.


s: Shall ring in heavenly chant upon thine ear;


s: Angels and Saints await thee, and God needs thee:


s: I saw them fanned by a warm western wind,


s: Shielded by care, and yet, (oh Fate unkind!)


s: Rich in a glorious Future of bright deeds,


s: Are met by Death, who sternly, sadly leads


s: So lately shining, wet with dew and tears,


s: I saw them change to dark and anxious fears


s: "Yet Love," I cried, "doth live, and conquer death--"


s: And breathed on Love, and killed it with his breath


s: It was to know that Love could change and die--


s: "The Love of God lives through eternity,


s: Without one bitter feeling let us part--


s: And for the years in which your love has shed


s: I thank you, yes, I thank you from my heart.


s: I thank you for the cherished hope of years,


s: That my heart learnt not without love to live,


s: But gave and gave, and still had more to give,


s: I thank you, and no grief is in these tears;


s: I thank you, not in bitterness but truth,


s: For the fair vision that adorned my youth


s: Yet how much more I thank you that you tore


s: At length the veil your hand had woven away,


s: I thank you that you taught me the stern truth,


s: (None other could have told and I believed,)


s: That vain had been my life, and I deceived,


s: I thank you that your hand dashed down the shrine,


s: On such as you, though broken, bruised and crushed,


s: Now that its fiery throbbing is all hushed,


s: I thank you for the lesson that such love


s: And if reproach seemed hidden in my pain,


s: And sorrow seemed to cry on your disdain,


s: Know that my blessing lay in your forsaking.


s: Farewell for ever now:- in peace we part;


s: Remember that I thank you from my heart!


s: The faint low echo that we hear of far-off music seems to fill


s: Until the portals close again, and leave us toiling on in pain.


s: I thank Thee, Lord, that here our souls,


s: It is not for such Peace that we would pray.


s: Thou, oh dear Lord, wilt never teach us so.


s: Yet pressing through the darkness to the light.


s: Thou keepest for those hearts who love Thee best.


s: That, watching thy slow struggling breath,


s: And tell thee, dear, though this was death,


s: Could smooth thy garments with fond care,


s: And toil,--although the world's great space


s: (The soul gone, that was once so sweet,)


s: And know that prayer, and time, and pain,


s: Vain clouds, which the first wind blew by;


s: All Love--since thine had failed--a lie.


s: Still the light bridge hangs o'er the lake,


s: And one voice speaks, in tones I thought


s: I might have striven, and striven in vain,


s: Near me night's black clouds are rolling,


s: Drearily waileth the chill night breeze.


s: The long grass waveth, the tombs are white,


s: And the black clouds flit o'er the chill moonlight.


s: When slowly there cometh a mourning train,


s: And drearily wave in the chill night breeze.


s: The dark clouds part and the heavens are blue,


s: Where the trembling stars are shining through.


s: Like a cloud of incense their pinions rise,


s: But hush! for the silent glory is stirred,


s: By a strain such as earth has never heard:


s: No sound was there save the wailing breeze,


s: The rain, and the rustling cypress trees.


s: Spake of the hearts that beat so warmly,


s: "Would," they cried, "some voice could tell


s: Asked in his heart of hearts, "Where is she,


s: But silent still was the ancient forest,


s: And they laugh that their eyes are dazzled


s: They were startled, and fled to the thicket,


s: When the bright stars came out last night,


s: That through their tears looked for a morrow


s: Those hours of hope that longed for life,


s: Stern hours that darkened the sun's light,


s: Where knights and ladies climb the heights,


s: Hast thou o'er the clear heaven of thy soul


s: Hast thou watched all the hopes thou wouldst have won


s: Wait till the clouds are past, then raise thine eyes


s: Hast thou gone sadly through a dreary night,


s: No guide, no star, to cheer thee through the plain--


s: Wait, and thy soul shall see, when most forlorn,


s: Hast thou beneath another's stern control


s: And wasted sacred hopes and precious tears?


s: For thou canst gain, even from the bitterest part,


s: Has Fate overwhelmed thee with some sudden blow?


s: But know when storms are past, the heavens appear


s: And hope, when farthest from their shining rays,


s: Hast thou found life a cheat, and worn in vain


s: Has thy soul bent beneath earth's heavy bond?


s: Art thou alone, and does thy soul complain


s: That he who hopes and suffers here, can earn


s: Hast thou found nought within thy troubled life


s: Hast thou found all she promised thee, Deceit,


s: Endure, and there shall dawn within thy breast


s: And he knows the best remains unuttered;


s: Vainly he may strive; he dare not tell us


s: Vainly he may strive; the deepest beauty


s: Still the more his soul must struggle vainly,


s: No great Thinker ever lived and taught you


s: Charmed and bound in his melodious chains,


s: But be sure he heard, and strove to render,


s: Hidden from all the world, spake to him only


s: Are twin mysteries; different, yet the same:


s: Who could find its full and perfect name.


s: Love may strive, but vain is the endeavour


s: Still its tenderest, truest secret lingers


s: Things of Time have voices: speak and perish.


s: Art and Love speak--but their words must be


s: It is not because your heart is mine--mine only--


s: It is not because you chose me, weak and lonely,


s: Not because the earth is fairer, and the skies


s: Are more radiant for the shining of your eyes--


s: It is not because the world's perplexed meaning


s: And the Parapets of Heaven, with angels leaning,


s: And Nature sings of praise with all her voices


s: Since within my silent heart, that now rejoices,


s: Nay, not even because your hand holds heart and life;


s: Soothing, hushing all its discord, making strife


s: Teaching Trust to fold her wings, nor ever roam


s: Teaching Love that her securest, safest home


s: But because this human Love, though true and sweet--


s: Has been sent by Love more tender, more complete,


s: That it leads our hearts to rest at last in Heaven,


s: Do I take you as a gift that God has given--


s: And the props, on which our hearts depended,


s: How far back will seem the sun's first dawning,


s: Half forgotten even the toil of morning,


s: Flowers that we were tending, and weeds scorning,


s: Vain will seem the impatient heart, which waited


s: Toils that gathered but too quickly round;


s: At the path we thought none else had found;


s: By the storm which cast us to the ground.


s: Vain those pauses on the road, each seeming


s: And the leaving them, while tears were streaming


s: And the hands we held, fond folly dreaming


s: That no future could their touch efface.


s: All will then be faded:- night will borrow


s: Stars of light to crown our perfect rest;


s: And the dim vague memory of faint sorrow


s: Strange that my heart could beat, and know


s: Now night has faded far away, my sun has risen, and it is day.


s: But a faint radiant shadow cast back from our Love upon the Past.


s: I owe to her fond care alone that I may now be all thine own.


s: Fair Joy was there--her fluttering wings


s: Watching through long and patient nights,


s: And so rejoice my Life may be all consecrated, dear, to thee.


s: Some words are played on golden strings,


s: And LOVE: the slightest feelings, stirred


s: The lights extinguished, by the hearth I leant,


s: The flickering giant-shadows, gathering near,


s: Closed round me with a dim and silent fear.


s: All dull, all dark; save when the leaping flame,


s: Glancing, lit up a Picture's ancient frame.


s: Above the hearth it hung.  Perhaps the night,


s: My foolish tremors, or the gleaming light,


s: Lent power to that Portrait dark and quaint--


s: A Portrait such as Rembrandt loved to paint--


s: The likeness of a Nun.  I seemed to trace


s: In the thin hands folded across her breast--


s: Its own and the room's shadow hid the rest.


s: I gazed and dreamed, and the dull embers stirred,


s: Till an old legend that I once had heard


s: Came back to me; linked to the mystic gloom


s: Of that dark Picture in the ghostly room.


s: In the far south, where clustering vines are hung;


s: Where first the old chivalric lays were sung,


s: Where earliest smiled that gracious child of France,


s: Angel and knight and fairy, called Romance,


s: I stood one day.  The warm blue June was spread


s: Without a cloud to fleck its radiant glare,


s: Without a breath to stir its sultry air.


s: All still, all silent, save the sobbing rush


s: Of rippling waves, that lapsed in silver hush


s: Upon the beach; where, glittering towards the strand,


s: The purple Mediterranean kissed the land.


s: All still, all peaceful; when a convent chime


s: Broke on the mid-day silence for a time,


s: Then trembling into quiet, seemed to cease,


s: So as I turned to gaze, where gleaming white,


s: Half hid by shadowy trees from passers' sight,


s: The Convent lay, one who had dwelt for long


s: In that fair home of ancient tale and song,


s: Who knew the story of each cave and hill,


s: And every haunting fancy lingering still


s: Within the land, spake thus to me, and told


s: The Convent's treasured Legend, quaint and old:


s: Long years ago, a dense and flowering wood,


s: Still more concealed where the white convent stood,


s: Borne on its perfumed wings the title came:


s: "Our Lady of the Hawthorns" is its name.


s: Then did that bell, which still rings out to-day,


s: Bid all the country rise, or eat, or pray.


s: Before that convent shrine, the haughty knight


s: Passed the lone vigil of his perilous fight;


s: For humbler cottage strife or village brawl,


s: The Abbess listened, prayed, and settled all.


s: Young hearts that came, weighed down by love or wrong,


s: Left her kind presence comforted and strong.


s: Each passing pilgrim, and each beggar's right


s: Was food, and rest, and shelter for the night.


s: But, more than this, the Nuns could well impart


s: The deepest mysteries of the healing art;


s: Their store of herbs and simples was renowned,


s: And held in wondering faith for miles around.


s: Thus strife, love, sorrow, good and evil fate,


s: Found help and blessing at the convent gate.


s: Of all the nuns, no heart was half so light,


s: No eyelids veiling glances half as bright,


s: No step that glided with such noiseless feet,


s: No face that looked so tender or so sweet,


s: No voice that rose in choir so pure, so clear,


s: No heart to all the others half so dear,


s: So surely touched by others' pain or woe,


s: (Guessing the grief her young life could not know,)


s: No soul in childlike faith so undefiled,


s: As Sister Angela's, the "Convent Child."


s: For thus they loved to call her.  She had known


s: No home, no love, no kindred, save their own.


s: An orphan, to their tender nursing given,


s: Child, plaything, pupil, now the Bride of Heaven.


s: And she it was who trimmed the lamp's red light


s: That swung before the altar, day and night;


s: Her hands it was whose patient skill could trace


s: The finest broidery, weave the costliest lace;


s: But most of all, her first and dearest care,


s: The office she would never miss or share,


s: Was every day to weave fresh garlands sweet,


s: To place before the shrine at Mary's feet.


s: Nature is bounteous in that region fair,


s: Thus Angela loved to count each feast the best,


s: By telling with what flowers the shrine was dressed.


s: In pomp supreme the countless Roses passed,


s: Each with a different banner, flaming bright,


s: Damask, or striped, or crimson, pink, or white,


s: Until they bowed before a newborn queen,


s: Though Angela always thought the Mother blest


s: Must love the time of her own hawthorn best,


s: Each evening through the year, with equal, care,


s: She placed her flowers; then kneeling down in prayer,


s: As their faint perfume rose before the shrine,


s: So rose her thoughts, as pure and as divine.


s: She knelt until the shades grew dim without,


s: Till one by one the altar lights shone out,


s: Till one by one the Nuns, like shadows dim,


s: Gathered around to chant their vesper hymn;


s: Her voice then led the music's winged flight,


s: And "Ave, Maris Stella" filled the night.


s: But wherefore linger on those days of peace?


s: When storms draw near, then quiet hours must cease.


s: War, cruel war, defaced the land, and came


s: So near the convent with its breath of flame,


s: That, seeking shelter, frightened peasants fled,


s: Sobbing out tales of coming fear and dread,


s: Till after a fierce skirmish, down the road,


s: One night came straggling soldiers, with their load


s: Of wounded, dying comrades; and the band,


s: Half pleading yet as if they could command,


s: Summoned the trembling Sisters, craved their care,


s: Then rode away, and left the wounded there.


s: But soon compassion bade all fear depart.


s: Some prepare simples, healing salves, or bands,


s: The Abbess chose the more experienced hands,


s: To dress the wounds needing most skilful care;


s: Yet even the youngest Novice took her share.


s: Was given the charge of a young foreign knight,


s: Whose wounds were painful, but whose danger slight.


s: Day after day she watched beside his bed,


s: And first in hushed repose the hours fled:


s: His feverish moans alone the silence stirred,


s: Or her soft voice, uttering some pious word.


s: The hours, no longer silent, passed away.


s: What could she speak of?  First, to still his plaints,


s: She told him legends of the martyred Saints;


s: Described the pangs, which, through God's plenteous grace,


s: Had gained their souls so high and bright a place.


s: This pious artifice soon found success--


s: Or so she fancied--for he murmured less.


s: So she described the glorious pomp sublime,


s: In which the chapel shone at Easter time,


s: The Banners, Vestments, gold, and colours bright,


s: Counted how many tapers gave their light;


s: How the High Altar looked on Christmas-day:


s: The kings and shepherds, all in green and red,


s: Then told the sign by which they all had seen,


s: How even nature loved to greet her Queen,


s: For, when Our Lady's last procession went


s: Down the long garden, every head was bent,


s: And, rosary in hand, each Sister prayed;


s: As the long floating banners were displayed,


s: They struck the hawthorn boughs, and showers and showers


s: Of buds and blossoms strewed her way with flowers.


s: The Knight unwearied listened; till at last,


s: He too described the glories of his past;


s: Tourney, and joust, and pageant bright and fair,


s: And all the lovely ladies who were there.


s: But half incredulous she heard.  Could this--


s: This be the world? this place of love and bliss!


s: Where then was hid the strange and hideous charm,


s: That never failed to bring the gazer harm?


s: She crossed herself, yet asked, and listened still,


s: And still the knight described with all his skill


s: The glorious world of joy, all joys above,


s: Transfigured in the golden mist of love.


s: Spread, spread your wings, ye angel guardians bright,


s: And shield these dazzling phantoms from her sight!


s: But no; days passed, matins and vespers rang,


s: And still the quiet Nuns toiled, prayed, and sang,


s: And never guessed the fatal, coiling net


s: Which every day drew near, and nearer yet,


s: Around their darling; for she went and came


s: The same? ah, no! even when she knelt to pray,


s: Some charmed dream kept all her heart away.


s: Opened one night.  Who durst go forth so late?


s: Across the moonlit grass, with stealthy tread,


s: Two silent, shrouded figures passed and fled.


s: And all was silent, save the moaning seas,


s: That sobbed and pleaded, and a wailing breeze


s: That sighed among the perfumed hawthorn trees.


s: What need to tell that dream so bright and brief,


s: What need to tell how all such dreams must fade,


s: Before the slow, foreboding, dreaded shade,


s: That floated nearer, until pomp and pride,


s: Pleasure and wealth, were summoned to her side.


s: To bid, at least, the noisy hours forget,


s: And clamour down the whispers of regret.


s: Still Angela strove to dream, and strove in vain;


s: Awakened once, she could not sleep again.


s: She saw, each day and hour, more worthless grown


s: The heart for which she cast away her own;


s: And her soul learnt, through bitterest inward strife,


s: The slight, frail love for which she wrecked her life,


s: The phantom for which all her hope was given,


s: The cold bleak earth for which she bartered heaven!


s: But all in vain; would even the tenderest heart


s: Now stoop to take so poor an outcast's part?


s: Years fled, and she grew reckless more and more,


s: Until the humblest peasant closed his door,


s: And where she passed, fair dames, in scorn and pride,


s: Shuddered, and drew their rustling robes aside.


s: At last a yearning seemed to fill her soul,


s: A longing that was stronger than control:


s: Once more, just once again, to see the place


s: That knew her young and innocent; to retrace


s: The long and weary southern path; to gaze


s: Once more beneath the convent roof to lie;


s: Once more to look upon her home--and die!


s: Weary and worn--her comrades, chill remorse


s: And black despair, yet a strange silent force


s: Within her heart, that drew her more and more--


s: Onward she crawled, and begged from door to door.


s: Weighed down with weary days, her failing strength


s: Grew less each hour, till one day's dawn at length,


s: As first its rays flooded the world with light,


s: Showed the broad waters, glittering blue and bright,


s: And where, amid the leafy hawthorn wood,


s: Just as of old the quiet cloister stood.


s: Would any know her?  Nay, no fear.  Her face


s: Had lost all trace of youth, of joy, of grace,


s: Of the pure happy soul they used to know--


s: She rang the convent bell.  The well-known sound


s: Smote on her heart, and bowed her to the ground,


s: And she, who had not wept for long dry years,


s: Felt the strange rush of unaccustomed tears;


s: Terror and anguish seemed to check her breath,


s: And stop her heart.  Oh God! could this be death?


s: Crouching against the iron gate, she laid


s: Her weary head against the bars, and prayed:


s: But nearer footsteps drew, then seemed to wait:


s: And then she heard the opening of the grate,


s: And saw the withered face, on which awoke


s: And asked the stranger's bidding: "Take me in,"


s: And sorrow, and despair, that will not cease;


s: Oh, take me in, and let me die in peace!"


s: With soothing words the Sister bade her wait,


s: Until she brought the key to unbar the gate.


s: The beggar tried to thank her as she lay,


s: And heard the echoing footsteps die away.


s: But what soft voice was that which sounded near,


s: And stirred strange trouble in her heart to hear?


s: She raised her head; she saw--she seemed to know--


s: A face that came from long, long years ago:


s: The young and blooming novice, fair and gay,


s: The outcast knew it--what she might have been.


s: But, as she gazed and gazed, a radiance bright


s: Filled all the place with strange and sudden light;


s: The Nun was there no longer, but instead,


s: So soft, so tender . . . Angela strove to speak,


s: And stretched her hands out, crying, "Mary mild,


s: Mother of mercy, help me!--help your child!"


s: And Mary answered, "From thy bitter past,


s: Welcome, my child! oh, welcome home at last!


s: I filled thy place.  Thy flight is known to none,


s: Gathered thy flowers, and prayed, and sung, and slept;


s: Didst thou not know, poor child, thy place was kept?


s: Kind hearts are here; yet would the tenderest one


s: And man's forgiveness may be true and sweet,


s: But yet he stoops to give it.  More complete


s: Is Love that lays forgiveness at thy feet,


s: And pleads with thee to raise it.  Only Heaven


s: Means crowned, not vanquished, when it says 'Forgiven!'"


s: Was the poor beggar she left lying there?


s: Gone; and she searched in vain, and sought the place


s: For that wan woman with the piteous face:


s: Laden with hawthorn blossoms from the wood.


s: But the old portress, with a sigh of pain,


s: Would sorrow for her loitering: with a prayer


s: That the poor beggar, in her wild despair,


s: Might not have come to any ill; and when


s: She ended, "God forgive her!" humbly then


s: Did Angela bow her head, and say "Amen!"


s: How pitiful her heart was! all could trace


s: Something that dimmed the brightness of her face


s: After that day, which none had seen before;


s: Not trouble--but a shadow--nothing more.


s: Years passed away.  Then, one dark day of dread


s: Saw all the sisters kneeling round a bed,


s: Struggling beneath the heavy hand of death.


s: She raised her wan right hand, and strove to speak.


s: In sorrowing love they listened; not a sound


s: Or sigh disturbed the utter silence round.


s: The very tapers' flames were scarcely stirred,


s: In such hushed awe the sisters knelt and heard.


s: And through that silence Angela told her life:


s: Her sin, her flight; the sorrow and the strife,


s: And the return; and then clear, low and calm,


s: "Praise God for me, my sisters;" and the psalm


s: Rang up to heaven, far and clear and wide,


s: Again and yet again, then sank and died;


s: While her white face had such a smile of peace,


s: They saw she never heard the music cease;


s: And weeping sisters laid her in her tomb,


s: Crowned with a wreath of perfumed hawthorn bloom.


s: Besides the lesson of God's pardon shown,


s: Never enough believed, or asked, or known.


s: Have we not all, amid life's petty strife,


s: That once seemed possible?  Did we not hear


s: The flutter of its wings, and feel it near,


s: And just within our reach?  It was.  And yet


s: But still our place is kept, and it will wait,


s: We always may be what we might have been.


s: Since Good, though only thought, has life and breath,


s: God's life--can always be redeemed from death;


s: The hopes that lost in some far distance seem,


s: May be the truer life, and this the dream.


s: Just for the very shadow thrown upon its sweetness here below,


s: The cross that it must bear alone, and bloody baptism of woe,


s: Can give, with generous, earnest will,--


s: "The hours are fleeting--great the need--


s: And pray, with all thy strength, that God


s: Where the wild wood-strawberries cluster


s: Heard the words they could not understand.


s: And I drew them round my knee that night,


s: Hushed their childish glee, and made them say


s: They would keep her words with loving tears,


s: Lest the thought of her should fade away.


s: I, who guessed what her last dread had been,


s: Made a promise to that still, cold face,


s: That her children's hearts, at any cost,


s: Should be with the mother they had lost,


s: Six short years before, her eyes were bright


s: As her little blue-eyed May's that night,


s: When she stood by her dead mother's side.


s: But she had been used to love and praise.


s: He was somewhat grave--perhaps, in truth,


s: Could not weave her joyous, smiling youth,


s: She, who should have reigned a blooming flower,


s: First in pride and honour, as in grace,--


s: She, whose will had once ruled all around,


s: Change indeed in that cold, stately place.


s: Yet she would not blame him, even to me,


s: But she could not hide it near her death,


s: When she said with her last struggling breath,


s: When he saw his dead wife's face.  That test


s: Seemed to strike right to his heart.  He said,


s: "God knows, love, I did it for the best!"


s: When I brought the children to him there--


s: And he soothed them with his fond replies,


s: Ah, I loved them well for her dear sake:


s: She had cost that dear and precious life.


s: When the baby's gloomy christening came,


s: And the children felt it, for they dropped


s: Low their voices, and their laughter stopped


s: While he stood and watched them at their play.


s: She had been; so gentle, good, and bright;


s: Where her picture hung in the great hall.


s: There she stood: white daisies in her hand,


s: Seemed to stir her floating golden hair,


s: And to bring a faint blush on her cheek.


s: Well, so time passed on; a year was gone,


s: Through their childhood and their early youth,


s: Of this friendship that would never end!


s: Whose young, gentle heart on her relied,


s: She would give advice, and praise, and blame,


s: As her dearest comfort, help, and guide.


s: Since her marriage; for she named her less,


s: She would come and reign here in her stead,


s: Would no thought reproach her in her pride


s: So, the day came, and the bells rang out,


s: They must greet their father's new-made bride.


s: Ah, Sir Arthur might look grave and stern,


s: And his lady's eyes might well grow dim,


s: When the children shrank in fear away,--


s: Would not raise her eyes, or speak to him.


s: When Sir Arthur bade them greet their "mother,"


s: I was forced to chide, yet proud to hear


s: With her mother's pretty air of pride,--


s: Ah, the lady's tears might well fall fast,


s: As she kissed them, and then turned away.


s: Must have risen to blight her wedding-day.


s: She had some strange touch of self-reproach;


s: With a sad, calm, wistful look, and wait


s: Watching the three children at their play.


s: When she strove to comfort their alarms,


s: And their grave, cold silence to beguile:


s: How their mother's memory grew more deep


s: In their hearts.  Each night I had to tell


s: When a child, to send them off to sleep.


s: But Sir Arthur--Oh, this was too hard!--


s: Each day more; and I could hear his voice


s: He might perhaps have blamed them, but his wife


s: Never failed to take the children's part:


s: She would stay him with her pleading tone,


s: Saying she would strive, and strive alone,


s: Till she gained each little wayward heart.


s: Yet, when May had most her mother's look,


s: Then the lady's calm, cold accents shook


s: Kissed her golden curls, and softly said,


s: "Sweet one, call me Margaret, instead,--


s: She had the first claim upon their heart.


s: So three years passed; then the war broke out;


s: First we guessed what sorrow must befall,


s: To that scene of slaughter, fear, and strife,--


s: When, one night, the children at my knee


s: Knelt to say their evening prayer to me,


s: There they knelt with folded hands, and said


s: Low, soft words in stammering accents sweet;


s: In the firelight shone their golden hair


s: And white robes: my darlings looked so fair,


s: Stopped the rosy lips raised for "Good night!"--


s: Drew them with a fond clasp, close and near,


s: Something that would make his heart more light.


s: From her northern home, and here she met


s: In one early friend,--you know her name.


s: "And this friend--a few years older--gave


s: Such fond care, such love, that day by day


s: "And your mother--fragile, like my May--


s: Leant on this deep love,--nor leant in vain.


s: For this friend (strong, generous, noble heart!)


s: Gave the sweet, and took the bitter part,--


s: Brought her all the joy, and kept the pain.


s: "Years passed on, and then I saw them first:


s: Your sweet mother's bright and blushing face,


s: "Then it happened, by a strange, sad fate,


s: One thought entered into each young soul:


s: One must lose, and one possess the whole.


s: "And so this--this--what they cared for--came


s: The strange mystery of her absence knew.


s: Margaret's secret thought was never told:


s: Even your mother thought her changed and cold,


s: "She was gone; and then your mother took


s: That poor gift which Margaret laid aside:


s: Flower, or toy, or trinket, matters not:


s: "Now, I think May knows the hope I have.


s: Arthur, darling, can you guess the rest?


s: Great gifts can be given by little hands,


s: Since of all gifts Love is still the best.


s: From your hearts, dear ones, a loving debt


s: "Earth spoils even Love, and here a shade


s: Now your mother dwells in perfect light,


s: She will bless us, I believe, to-night,--


s: Ah, they loved her soon!  The little one


s: "Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini."


s: With the mystery hid in its heart of gold.


s: We will arise and go forth to greet him,


s: But greet him quickly, he will not stay,


s: Soon he will leave us; but though for others


s: All his brightest treasures are stored;--


s: Let us say still, while his bitter chalice


s: The smile that comes like a starry light


s: Then let us, baring our hearts and kneeling,


s: Sing, while we wait this Angel's sword,--


s: Soon, soon, thou shalt have thy kingdom,


s: Spread, spread thy silver wings, oh Dove!


s: And all the strength of two great nations,


s: With bleeding feet, and hearts rejoicing,


s: Through, and beyond them, lies our Rest:


s: Then cease, oh Heart, thy longing quest!


s: Cried the harsh Voice:--"Where are they--


s: Trust me, no mere skill of subtle tracery,


s: And those quaint old fragments that are left us


s: Have their power in this,--the Carver brought


s: Earnest care, and reverent patience, only


s: Round the stems of all the lilies twine,


s: Hide beneath each bird's or angel's pinion,


s: Some wise meaning or some thought divine.


s: Tender words of peace, and strive to wind