Last night she came unto me,And kneeling by my side,Laid her head upon my bosom,My beautiful, my bride;My lost one, with her soft dark eyes,And waves of sunny hair.I smoothed the shining tresses,With tearful, fond caresses,And words of thankful prayer.
And then a thrill of doubt and pain,My jealous heart swept o'er;We were parted—she was dwellingUpon a far-off shore;Yet He who made my sad heart, knewI loved her more and more;My love more true and perfect grew,As each dark day passed o'er;But she whose heart had been my own,Who loved me tenderly,Whose last low words I knelt to hear,Were, "How can I leave thee?"
And "Death would seem as sweet as life,Could we together be."Now, though we two were partedBy such a distance wide,By such a strange and viewless realm,By such a boundless tide,Her gentle face was radiantWith a surpassing bliss;She was happier in that distant land,Than she ever was in this.And in some other tenderness,Some other love divine,She had found a peace and happiness,She never found in mine.
So with a tender chiding,I could not quite suppress,Though well my darling knewI would not make her pleasures less."Are you happy, love?" I said,"Are you happy, love, without me?"Then she raised her gentle head,And twined her arms about me;Yet while my tears fell faster,Beneath her mute caress,Her face had all the gloryOf a sainted soul at rest;And her voice was sweet as music,"I am happy—I am blest."
"Do you know how lonely-heartedI have been each weary day,Praying that each passing hourWould bear my life away,That we might be unitedUpon that distant shore?"
"Laurence, we are not parted,I am with your evermore."
"I cannot see you, darling,Your face I cannot see."
"Can you see the moon's white fingers,That leads the pleading sea?Can you see the fragrance lingeringWhere summer roses be?The soft winds tender clasping,The close-enwrapping airEnfolding you—Oh, Laurence,I am with you everywhere."
Then while her face grew brighterAs with a heavenly glow,In tenderness unspeakable,She kissed my lips and brow;Then I lost her—then she left me,As at the set of dayThe snowy clouds float outward,And melt in light away.I heard low strains of melodyNo earthly choir could sing,A light breath floated past me,As from a gliding wing;And on my darkened spiritThere fell so bright a gleam,I knew the blessed visionWas not in truth a dream;Though death had won from my embrace,My beautiful, my bride,I had won a richer treasure,An angel by my side.
The Father careth for us allIn pity, and I knowMy love is not forever goneFrom him who loved her so;When a few more days have driftedTheir shadows over me,When the golden gates are lifted,My angel I shall see;Her veiled face in its gloryUpon my gaze will rise,And Heaven will shine upon meThrough the sweetness of her eyes.
What though the Eden morns were sweet with songPassing all sweetness that our thought can reach;Crushing its flowers noon's chariot moved alongIn brightness far transcending mortal speech;Yet in the twilight shades did God appear,Oh welcome shadows so that He draw near.
Prosperity is flushed with Papal easeAnd grants indulgences to pride of word,Robing our soul in pomp and vanities,Ah! no fit dwelling for our gentle Lord;Grief rends those draperies of pride and sin,And so our Lord will deign to enter in.
Then carefully we curb each thought of wrong,We walk more softly, with more reverent feet—As in His presence chamber, hush our tongue,And in the holy quiet, solemn, sweet,We feel His smile, we hear His voice so low,So we can bless Him that He gave us woe.
What cares the sailor in the sheltered coveFor the past peril of the stormy sea;Dear from grief's storm the haven of His love,And so He bringeth us where we would be;We trust in Him, we lean upon His breast,Who shall make trouble when He giveth rest?
Oh gay young husbandmen would you be sure of a cropUpspringing rankly, an abundant and bountiful yield?Go forth in the morning, and sow on your life's broad fieldThis pleasantly odorous seed, then smooth the ground on top,Or leave it rough, with the utmost undeceit,Never you fear, it will thriftily thrive and grow,Loading the harvest plain beneath your feet,With the ripened sheaves of shame, remorse, and woe.
You have but to sow the seed, no care will it want,For he who soweth tares while the husbandman sleepsTaketh unwearied pains, a vigilant guard he keepsTirelessly watching, and tending each evil plant.These are his pleasure gardens, leased to him through timeWhere he walketh to and fro, chanting a demon song;Tending with ghastly fingers, the scarlet buds of wrong,And drinking greedily in the sweet perfume of crime.
And of all the seeds, the one that thriftiest thrivesIs the color of ruby wine, when it flashes high—Who would think the tiny seed so fair to the eyeCould cast such a deadly shade over countless lives,And branch out into murder in one springing shoot;Thrifty branches of sin, bristling with thorns of woeShadowing graves where broken hearts lie low,And minds that were God-like lowered beneath the brute.
How the sumac banners bent, dripping as if with blood,What a mournful presence brooded upon the slumbrous air;A mocking-bird screamed noisily in the depth of the silent wood,And in my heart was crying the raven of despair,Thrilling my being through with its bitter, bitter cry—"It were better to die, it were better to die."
For she, my love, my fate, she sat by my sideOn a fallen oak, her cheek all flushed with a bashful shame,Telling me what her innocent heart had hid—"For was not I her brother, her dear brother, all but in name."I listened to her low words, but turned my face away—Away from her eyes' soft light, and the mocking light of the day.
"He was noble and proud," she said, "and had chosen her from allThe haughty ladies, and great; she didn't deserve her lot."I knew her peer could never be found in palace or hall,And my white face told my thought, but she saw it not.She was crushing some scarlet leaves in her dainty fingers of snow,Her maiden joy crowning her face with a radiant glow.
"She had wanted me to know," and then a smile and a blush;Her smile was always just like a baby's smile, and the redCame to her cheek at a word or a glance—then there fell a hush.She was waiting some word from me, I knew, so I said,"May Heaven bless you both"—words spoken full quietly,And she, God bless her, never knew how much they cost to me.
How the sumac banners bent, dripping as if with blood,What a mournful presence brooded upon the slumbrous air;A mocking-bird screamed noisily in the depths of the silent wood,And in my heart was crying the raven of despair,Thrilling my being through with its desolate, desolate cry—"It were better to die, it were better to die."
The white dawn follows the darkness; out of the years' decayShineth the golden fire that gildeth the autumn with light;From another's sin and loss, cometh this good to me,By another's fall am I raised to this blissful height."Let me be humble," said my heart, as from her sweet lips fell,"Let a prayer for him arise, with the sound of our marriage bell."
'Twas a bleak dull moor that stretched beforeThe low stone porch of the cottage door,And standing there was youth and maid,He for long journeying seemed arrayed,And the sunset flamed in the burnished west,And a proud throb beat in the young man's breast,As he whispered, "Sweet, will you come to meIn that fairer land beyond the sea?"
"The wonderful western land; in dreamsI have seen its prairies green, and gleamsOf its shining waterfalls, valleys fair,And a voice in my dreams has called me thereWhere man is a man, and not a clod,And must bend the knee to none but God.A home will I make for thee and meIn that fairer land beyond the sea."
"But the cruel seas where the fated shipsGo down to their doom"—But he kissed the lips—The trembling lips, till they smiled again,And his bright hopes cheered her heart's dull pain,And she laid her head on his hopeful breast,And looked with him to the glowing west,And said, "I will come, I will come to theeTo that fairer land beyond the seas."
And the crimson light changed to daffodil—To ashen gray, but they stood there still,And high o'er the west shone the evening starAs still he pictured that home afar—"The peace and the bliss our own at lastWhen this dreary parting all is past,When my heart's dear love, you come to meIn that fairer land beyond the sea."
So he sailed; but saddest 'tis alwayNot for those who go, but for those who stay;And her sweet eyes gathered a shadow dimAs days went by with no news of him,And weeks and months, but at last it came,As the gray moor shone with the sunset flameHer quick eyes glanced the strange lines o'er,Then she fell like dead on the cottage floor.
'Twas a stranded ship on a rocky coast,One true heart brave, when hope was lost,How he toiled till all the shore had gained,And only a baby form remainedOn ship, how he breasted the surging tideWith Death a-wrestling side by side,How he lifted the child to its mother's knee,As a great wave washed him out to sea.
And for days the maid in the cottage doorSat and looked o'er the dreary moor,Her cheeks grew white 'neath her blinding tears,And the sunset rays seemed cruel spearsThat pierced her heart; and ashen grayTurned the earth and sky, the night, the day;But at last a star shone high above—The tender star of the heavenly love.
For as her life ebbed day by day,The High Countrie, the Fair alway,Rose 'fore her eyes, the safe, sweet home,And she seemed to hear, "Love, will you come?"And so one eve when a bridge of goldSeemed spanning the last sea dim and cold,She went to him, for aye to beIn the fairest land beyond the sea.
Is his form hidden by some cliff or crag,Or does he loiter on the shelving shore?We know not, though we know he waits for us,Somewhere upon the road that lies before.
And when he bids us we must follow him,Must leave our half-drawn nets, our houses, lands,And those we love the most, and best, ah theyIn vain will cling to us with pleading hands!
He will not wait for us to gird our robes,And be they white as saints, or soiled and dim,We can but gather them around our form,And take his icy hand and follow him.
Oh! will our palm cling to another palmLoath, loath to loose our hold of love's warm grasp.Or shall we free our hand from the hand of grief,And reach it gladly out to meet his clasp?
Sometimes I marvel when we two shall meet,When I shall hear that stealthy step, and seeThe unseen form that haunteth mortal dreams,The stern-browed face, the eyes of mystery.
Shall I be waiting for some wished-for wealth,Impatient, by the shore of a purple sea?But when the vessel's keel grates on the sand,Will HE lean down its side and call to me?
Shall I in thymy pastures cool and sweetSee the lark soaring through the rosy air?Ah, then, will his dark face look down on me,'Neath the white splendor of the morning star.
Shall I be resting from the noonday blaze,In the rich summer of a blossoming land,And idly glancing through the lotus leaves,Behold the shadow of his beckoning hand?
Or in some inland village, shaded deep,With silence brooding o'er the quiet place,Shall I look from some lattice crowned with flowers,In the calm twilight and behold his face?
Or shall I over such a lonely way,Beset with fears, my weary footsteps wend,So desolate, that I shall greet his faceWith joy as a desired and welcome friend?
Oh, little matters it when we shall meet,Upon the quiet shore, or on the sea,If he shall lead us to the golden gate,Dear Lord, if he shall lead us unto Thee.
Come, gentle sleep, with the holy night,Come with the stars and the white moonbeams,Come with your train of handmaids bright,Blessed and beautiful dreams.
Bring the exile to his home again,Let him catch the gleam of its low white wall;Let his wife cling to his neck and weep,And his children come at their father's call.
Give to the mother the child she lost,Laid from her heart to a clay-cold bed;Let its breath float over her tear-wet cheek,And her cold heart warm 'neath its bright young head.
Take the sinner's hand and lead him backTo his sinless youth and his mother's knee;Let him kneel again 'neath her tender look,And murmur the prayer of his infancy.
Lead the aged into that wondrous clime,Home of their youth and land of their bliss;Let them forget in that beautiful world,The sin and the sorrow of this.
And gently lead my love, my own,Tenderly clasp her snow-white hand,Wrap her in garments of soft repose,And lead her into your mystic land.
Let your fairest handmaids bow at her feet,Her path o'er your loveliest roses be;And let all the flowers with their perfumed lipsWhisper of me—of me.
Come, gentle sleep, with the holy night,Come with the stars and the white moonbeams,Come with your train of handmaids bright,Blessed and beautiful dreams.
Oh, I am the siren, the siren of the sea,The sea, the wondrous sea, that lies forevermore before;I stand a fairy shape upon the shadow of a cliffWhere the water's drowsy ripple laps the phantom of a shore,And, oh, so fair, so fair am I, I draw all hearts to me,For I am the siren, the siren of the sea.
All the glory of my golden tresses gleams upon the air,How it falls about my snowy shoulders, round and bare and white;My lips are full of love as rounded grapes are full of wine,And my eyes are large and languid, and full of dewy light;Oh, I lure the idle landsmen many a league for love of me,For I am the siren, the siren of the sea.
Sometimes they press so near that my breath is on their cheek,And their eager hands can almost touch the glowing bowl I bear,They can see the beaded froth, the ruby glitter of the wine,Then I slip from their embraces like a breath of summer air;Oh, I lightly, lightly glide away, they come no nigher me,For I am the siren, the siren of the sea.
Sometimes I float along a-standing in a boat,Before the ships becalmed, where dusky sailors stand,And the helmsman drops his oar, and the lookout leaves his glass,So I beckon them, and lure them, with the whiteness of my hand;Oh, this the song I sing, well they listen unto me?For I am the siren, the siren of the sea.
Would you from toil and labor flee,Oh float ye out on this wonderful sea,From islands of spice the zephyrs blow,Swaying the galleys to and fro;Silken sails and a balmy breezeShall waft you unto a perfect ease.
Fold your hands and rest, and rest,The sun sails on from the east to the west,The days will come, and the days will go,What good can man for his labor showIn passionless peace, come float with meOver the waves of this wonderful sea.
Would you forget, oh sorrowful soul,Come and drink of this golden bowl,With jewelled poppies about the rim,Drink of the wine that flushes its brim,And drown all your haunting memories there,Your woe and your weary care.
Oh, I am the siren, the siren of the sea,The sea, the wondrous sea, that lies forevermore before;Oh, the mystic music ripples, how they break in rosy spray,But the crystal wave will mock them, they will reach itnevermore,For it glides away, I glide away, they come no nigher me,For I am the siren, the siren of the sea.
There's a tear in your eye, little Sybil,Gathering large and slow;Oh, Sybil, sweet little Sybil,What are you thinking of now?
Push back the velvet curtainsThat darken the lonely room,For shadows peer out of the crimson depths,And the statues gleam white in the gloom.
How the cannons' thunder rolls along,And shakes the lattice and wall,Oh, Sybil, sweet little Sybil,What if your father should fall?
The smoky clouds sweep up from the fieldAnd darken the earth and sea,"God save him! God save him!"Wherever he may be.
Oh, pretty dark-eyed bird of the South,With your face so mournful and whiteThere is many a little Northern girlThat is breathing that prayer to-night.
There's a little girl on the hills of MaineLooking out through the fading light,She looks down the winding path, and says,"He will surely come to-night!"
The table is set, the lamp is trimmed,The fire has a ruddy glowThat streams like a beacon down the path,To the dusky valley below.
There is smiling hope on the pretty facePressed so close to the pane,And her eyes are like blue violetsAfter a summer rain.
How you tremble, little Sybil,At the cannons' dreadful sound,Did you see far away, the fallen steed,And its rider prone on the ground?
The dark brown locks so low in the dust,The scarf with a crimson stain—Oh, Sybil, poor little Sybil,He will not come back again.
Right gallantly and well he foughtHand to hand with as brave a foe,Their faces hid by the nodding plumes,And the dense clouds hanging low.
Did they think, these hot-blooded captains,That Death was so close by their side,When Howard has fallen, the bravest—Rung out on the air far and wide.
"Howard?" His foeman kneels by his side,And raises his head to his knee—Oh, God! that brothers should part in youth,And thus should their meeting be.
Unheard is the deafening battle roar,Unseen is that dying look;He hears but the sound of a childish laugh,And the song of a Northern brook.
He sees two white forms kneelingIn the twilight sweet and dim,One low couch angel-guarded,By a mother's evening hymn.
The Angel of Death came down with the night,Came down with the gathering gloom;God pity the little dark-eyed girl,Alone in the lonely room.
But still by his side his brother kneels,Chill horror has frozen his veins;He heeds not the glancing shower of shells,That with red fire glitters and rains.
And he heeds not the fiery cavalry charge,That sweeps like a billow onTo death, oh, the bravest and saddest sight,That man ever gazed upon!
The last shot! What is one lifeTo the battle's gory gain?But, alas, for the little blue-eyed maidAway on the hills of Maine!
The clouds that vex the upper deepStay not the white sail of the moon;And lips may moan, and hearts may weep,The sad old earth goes rolling on.
O'er smiling vale, and sighing lake,One shadow cold is overthrown;And souls may faint, and hearts may break,The sad old earth goes rolling on.
"My house is thatched with violet leavesAnd paved with daisies fine,Scarlet berries droop over its eaves,Tall grasses round it shine;With softest down I have lined my nest,Securely now will I sit and rest.
"When their wings break from their silvery shell,Touched by my tender care,Here shall my little ones safely dwell,Little ones soft and fair;Some summer morn they shall try their wingsWhile their father sits by my side and sings."
Hard by, just over the streamlet's edgeA great rock towered in might,High up, half hidden in moss and sedge,Were safe little nooks and bright;Ah well for the bird with her tender breast,Had she flown to the rock to build her nest!
Poor bird, she built her nest too low;Alas! for the bird, alas!That she chose that spot to her woeIn the low dewy grass;For the reaper came with his gleaming blade.Alas for love in the violet shade!
What though upon a wintry sea our life bark sails,What though we tremble 'neath its cruel gales,Its icy blast;We see a happy port lie far before,We see its shining waves, its sunny shore,Where we shall wander, and forget the troubled past,At last.
No storms approach that quiet shore, no nightFalls on its silver streams, and valleys bright,And gardens vast;Within that pleasant land of perfect peaceOur toil-worn feet shall stay, our wanderings cease;There shall we, resting, all forget the past,At last.
The sorrows we have hid in silent weariness,As birds above a wounded, bleeding breast,Their bright plumes cast;The griefs like mourners in a dark array,That haunt our footsteps here, will flee away,And leave us to forget the sorrowful past,At last.
Voices we loved sound from those far-off lands,And thrill our hearts; life's golden sandsAre dropping fast;Soon shall we meet by the river of peace, and say,As the night flees before the eye of day,So faded from our eyes the mournful past,At last.
Draped in shadows stands the mountainAgainst the eastern sky,Above it the fair summer moonLooks downward tenderly;And Venus in the glowing west,Opens her languid eye.
Now the winds breathe softer music,Half a song, and half a sigh;While twilight wraps her purple veilAround us silently,And our thoughts appear like pictures,Pictures shaded wondrously.
Quiet landscapes, sweet and lonely,Silvery sea, and shadowy glade,Forest lakes by man forsaken,Where the white fawn's steps are stayed;And contadinos straying'Neath the Pantheon's solemn shade.
And we see the wave bridged overBy the moonlight's mystic link,Desert wells by tall palms shaded,Where dusky camels drink;While dark-eyed Arab maidensFill their pitchers at the brink.
And secluded convent chapels,Where veiled nuns kneel to pray,With a dim light streaming o'er themThrough arches quaint and gray,While down the long and winding aislesLow music dies away.
There is a starry twilightOf the soul, as sadly fair,When our wild emotions are at rest,Like the pale nuns at prayer;And our griefs are hushed like sleepers,And put off the robes of care.
I asked to see the dead man's face,As I gave the servant my well-filled basket;And she deigned to lead me, a wondrous grace,Where he lay asleep in his rosewood casket.I was only the sewing-girl, and he the heir to thisprincely palace.Flowers, white flowers, everywhere,In odorous cross, and anchor, and chalice.The smallest leaf might touch his hair;But I—my God! I must stand apart,With my hands pressed silently on my heart,I must not touch the least brown curl;For I was only the sewing-girl.
If his stately mother knew what I know,As she weeping stood by his side this morning,Would she clasp me in motherly love and woe—Or drive me out in the cold with scorning?If she knew that I loved him better than life,Better than death; since for him I gaveMy hopes of rest, that I faced life's strife,And renounced the quiet and restful grave,When his strong, true hand drew me back that day,When woe, and want, and the want of pityDrove me down where the cold waves layLike wolves round the walls of this cruel city."Not much?" would she say with her proud lip's curl—"Only the life of a sewing-girl?"
Now love for me in his heart did linger—I saw the lady, his promised bride,I saw his ring on her slender finger,As she weeping stood by his mother's side.That same ring shone, as he lifted meDripping and cold from the sea-waves bitter.I had thought Heaven's light I next should see,But earth's sun shone in its ruby glitter;I had thought when I looked in the Lord's mild face,That He would forgive my rashness and sin,When He knew there was not a single place,Not a place so small that I could creep in.And I wanted a home, and I longed for love,And God and mother were both above.But he showed me my sin, and taught me to live,Above this life of tumult and whirl,Though I was only a sewing-girl.
What shall I do with the life he won,From death that day, in a hard-won battle?Shall I lay it down e'er the rising sunLooks down on the city's roar and rattle?Shall I lay it down e'er the midnight dimWith horrible shadows is roofed and paved?No, I will make it so pure and sweet,That angels shall say with smiles to him,When we meet above on the golden street:"Behold the soul of her you saved."Maybe it shall add to his crown one pearl,Though only the soul of a sewing-girl.
In his arm-chair, warmly cushioned,In the quiet earned by labor,Life's reposeful Indian summer,Grandpa sits; and lets the paperLie upon his knee unheeded.Shine his cheeks like winter apples,Gleams his smile like autumn sunshine,As he looks on little Harry,First-born of the house of Graham,Bravely cutting teeth in silence,Cutting teeth with looks heroic.Some deep thought seems moving Grandpa,Ponders he awhile in silence,Then he turns, and says to Grandma,"Nancy, do you think that everThere was such a child before?"
Grandma, with prim precisionThe seam-stitch impaleth deftlyOn her sharp and glittering needle,Then she turns and answers calmly,With a deep assurance—"NeverWas there such a child before!"
Papa thinks so, but in manlyDignity controls his feelings;More than half a year a father,He must show a cool composure,He must stately be if ever.But his dark eyes plainly tell it,Tell it, as he sayeth proudly,"Papa's man is little Harry."
Mamma, maybe, does not speak it,But she prints the thought on velvet,Rosy-hued, with fondest kisses,When the pink, soft page is lyingFolded closely to her bosom.
A little farther goes his auntie,Aged fourteen—age of fancy;She looks down the future agesWith her wise, prophetic vision;Sees the babies pass before her,Babies of the twentieth century,All the long and dusty ages,To the thousand years of glory.Oh, the host of bright-eyed children,Thronging like the stars at midnight,Faces sweet and countless, as theRose-leaves of a thousand summers.All the pretty heads so curlyThat shall hold a riper wisdomThan our youthful planet dreams of;All the ranks of dimple shoulders,That shall move Time's rolling chariotNearer to the golden city;Vieweth these the blue-eyed prophet,Still the oracle says calmly,Speaks the seer with golden tresses—"No! there never was, nor will beSuch a child as our Harry,Such a noble boy as Harry."
Summer brings a wealth of flowers,Flowers of every form and color,Orange, crimson, royal purple,All along the mountain passes,All along the pleasant valley,Low the emerald branches bendethWith their weight of summer glory.
But they do not waken in usHalf the tender, blissful feeling,Half the pure and sweet emotionAs the first spring-flower in April,With its lashes tinged with crimson,Partly raised from eyes half-timid,Fearful that the snow will drown it;How we love the dainty blossom,How we wear it in our bosom.
Just so with the tree ancestral,Many flowers may blossom on it,But the first wee bud that's grafted,To its heart, ah, how we love it;Others may be loved as fondly,But they are not loved so proudly,Loved so blindly, so entirely.
Yes, when first the heart's door opensTo the touch of baby fingers,Quick the dimpled feet will bear themTo the dearest place and warmestPlenty room enough for otherBuds of beauty, buds of promise,In the heart's capacious chambers;But the first is firmly settled—Little Harry's firmly settledIn the centre of affection;Later ones must settle round him.
As on a waveless sea, a vessel strikesUpon a treacherous rock;Waking the sailors from their happy dreamsBy the swift, terrible shock.
Dreaming of shaded village streets, and home,Forgetting the cruel seaTill the shock came—so woke I, yet I know'Twas Love, I loved, not he.
'Tis not the star the wave so wildly clasps,Only its form reflected in the stream;'Tis not a broken heart I mourn,Only a broken dream.
I should have died when he was brought so low,Had it been him I loved,Died clinging to him, as to the blasted oakThe ivy clings unmoved.
'Twas Love that looked on me with strange, sweet eyesBurning with marvellous flame;Love was the idol that I worshipped, thoughI gave to it his name.
I gave to Love his name, his glance, his brow,His low-toned voice, his smile,Oh, soul be patient; I can sever themBut yet a little while—
Before I put away these outward formsDeceiving, sweet disguises, which Love woreLet my heart break into regretful tearsJust once, and then no more.
Just once, as fond friends watch the fading sailBearing away a guest of truest worth,They give this little time to grief, and thenReturn to their desolate hearth,
And build new fires, and gather dewy flowers,Let the pure air into the vacant room,So light, and bloom, and sweetness, allShall penetrate its gloom.
I will be patient, in a little timeQuiet, and full of rest,Gods's peace will come, and, like a soft-winged bird,Settle upon my breast.
Not always thus shall beat my restless heartLike a wild eagle 'gainst its prison-bars;In some calm twilight of the future timeI will sit, calm-browed, underneath the stars.
Smooth the hair;Silken waves of sunny brownLay upon the white brow down,Crowned with the blossoms rare;Lilies on a golden stream,Ne'er to float in summer airWreathed with meadow daisies fair.Lay away the broken crownAnd your broken dream,With one shining tress of hair,Nevermore to need your care.
My heart sings like a bird to-nightThat flies to its nest in the soft twilight,And sings in its brooding bliss;Ah! I so low, and he so high,What could he find to love? I cry,Did ever love stoop so low as this?
As a miser jealously counts his gold,I sit and dream of my wealth untold,From the curious world apart;Too sacred my joy for another eye,I treasure it tenderly, silently,And hide it away in my heart.
Dearer to me than the costliest crownThat ever on queenly forehead shoneIs the kiss he left on my brow;Would I change his smile for a royal gem?His love for a monarch's diadem?Change it? Ah, no, ah, no!
My heart sings like a bird to-nightThat flies away to its nest of lightTo brood o'er its living bliss;Ah! I so low, and he so high,What could he find to love? I cry,Did ever love stoop so low as this?
When enwrapped in rosy pleasure,Our careless pulses beat,With a rhythm sweet, sweet,To the music's merry measure.
When world waves rise around us,With soft transparent weight,Light in seeming, yet so great,The liquid chains have bound us.
Then softly downward falling,If we listen, we can hear,From a purer atmosphere,A warning and a calling.
'Tis not uttered to our ear,To our spirit it is spoken,In the wonderful, unbrokenHeavenly speech that spirits hear.
Strange and solemn doth it rollDownward like a yearning cry,From that belfry far on high,Warning, calling to our soul.
Ever, ever, doth it roll,Our angel guards the tower,Ringing, ringing, every hour,Warning, calling to our soul.
I turn the key in this idle hourOf an ivory box, and looking, lo—See only dust—the dust of a flower;The waters will ebb, the waters will flow,And dreams will come, and dreams will go,Forever.
Oh, friend, if you and I should meetBeneath the boughs of the bending lime,Should you in the same low voice repeatThe tender words of the old love rhyme,It could not bring back the same old time,Never.
When you laid this rose against my brow,I was quite unused to the ways of men,With my trusting heart; I am wiser now,So I smile, remembering my heart-throbs then,The dust of a rose cannot blossom again,Never.
The brow that you praised has colder grown,And hearts will change, I suppose they must,A rose to be lasting, should blossom in stone,Ashes to ashes, dust to dust,Dead are the rose, the love, and the trust,Forever.
In a waste of yellow sand, on the brow of a dreary hill,A slight little slip of a rose struggled up to the light,The seed maybe was sown there by the south wind's idle will,But there it grew and blossomed, pale and white.Only one flower it bore, and that was frail and small,But I think it was brave to try to grow at all.
In groves of fair Cashmere, or sheltered garden of kings,Sweet with a thousand flowers, with birds of paradiseFanning her blushing cheeks with their glowing wings,Praising her deepening bloom with their great bright eyes,Life would have been a pleasure instead of a toil,To my pale little patient rose of the sandy soil.
Did she ever sadly think of her wasted life,Folding her wan weak hands so helpless and still;And the great oak by her sheltering glad bird life,And the thirsty meadows praising the running rill;She could hear the happy work-day song of the busy brook,While she, poor thing, could only stand and look.
Did the wee white rose ever think of her lonely life,That there were none to care if she tried to grow;None to care if the cloud that hung in the westShould burst, and scatter her pale leaves far and low?Did she ever wish that the heavy cloud would fallAnd hide her, so unblest, from the sight of all?
One sky bends o'er rich garden flowers, and thoseThat dwell in barren soil, untended and unblest;And I think that God was pleased with the small white rose,That tried so patiently to live and do its best;That bravely kept its small leaves pure and fairOn the waste of dreary sand, and the desert air.
She lay asleep, and her face shone whiteAs under a snowy veil,And the waxen hands clasped on her breastWere full of snowdrops pale;But a holy calm touched the baby lips,The brow, and the sleeping eyes,The look of an angel pitying usFrom the peace of Paradise.
And now though she lies 'neath the coffin-lid,We cannot think her dead;But we think of her as of some delicate birdTo a milder country fled.'Twas a long, dark flight for our gentle dove,Our bird so tender and fair;But we know she has reached the summer landAnd folded her white wings there.
I am thinking of fern forests that once did towering stand,Crowning all the barren mountains, shading all the dreary land.
Oh, the dreadful, quiet brooding, the solitude sublime, That reigned like shadowy spectres o'er the third great day of time.
In long, low lines the tideless seas on dull gray shores did break,No song of bird, no gleam of wing, o'er wood or reedy lake—
No flowers perfumed the pulseless air, no stars, no moon, no sunTo tell in silver language, night was past, or day was done.
Only silence rising with the ghostly morning's misty light,Silence, silence, settling down upon the moonless, starless night.
And the ferns, and giant mosses, noiseless sentinels did stand,Looking o'er the tideless ocean, watching o'er the dreary land.
Ferns gave place to glowing olives, and clusters dropping wine,Mosses changed to oaken tissues, and cleft to fragrant pine.
Deft and noiseless fingers toiled, and wrought the greatCreator's plan,Through countless ages moulding earth for the abode of man.
Till each imperial day was bound by sunset's crimson bars,The purple columns of the night crowned with the shining stars.
The ripe fruit seeks the sunlight through all the clustering leavesThe earth is decked with golden maize, and costly yellow sheaves.
Countless silent centuries passed in fashioning good that doth appear, Shall we weary and grow hopeless, waiting for the Golden Year?
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Thy kingdom come, in which Thy will is done,From myriad souls rises the yearning cry;Scatter palm-boughs—behold, a brighter sunShall dawn in splendor, in a clearer sky;Upon the distant hills a glow we see,That tells us of the Time that is to be.
The desert then shall blossom like the rose,The almond flourish on the rocky slopes;Wisdom and beauty in rare union close,Making earth beautiful beyond our hopes.High in the dusky east a star we see,A herald of the Time that is to be.
The free-born soul shall not be captive then,Bound by decaying cords of narrow creeds,God's image shall more clearly shine in men,Divinely shaped by holy aims and deeds.Gleam, golden star, oh gleam o'er earth and sea,A herald of the Time that is to be.
Fetters are broken, so the fern-leaves fall,A richer growth is budding, wondrous fair,The flower of liberty shall bloom for all,And all shall breathe the healing of the air;The blessed air that wraps a people free,Within that glorious Time that is to be.
For what is slavery but woe and crime,And freedom is but liberty from these;Oh perfect hours, ye come, fair and sublime,Bearing the sweet form of the baby, Peace,Shine, golden star, oh shine o'er earth and sea,A herald of the Time that is to be.