SNOW
After the singing birds are gone
And the leaves are parched and low,
When the year is old, and the sky is wan,
Then comes the snow.
Hushed are the world's discordant notes
By the soft hand of snow.
Each flake how silently it floats;
How peaceable, how slow!
Ah, when the silver cord is loosed
And the golden bowl is broken,
And the spirit poured on the air unused,
As one has spoken,
After the last faint sob of breath
And the jar of life's outflow,
Over the sunken soul comes death,
Soft, cool, like snow.
BY THE SEA
Ave Maria by the sea,
Whose waves go on forevermore!
And we, the sheltered of the shore,
Have prayed to thee
For those in ships that journey far,
Where all day long their sails are white,
And grey and ghostly in the night
Each ship beneath its star.
Ave Maria! Be our guide.
A watchful star, a port to reach,
Ave Maria! give to each
Some eventide.
Be thou our moon of mystic light,
Across the ocean's gloom and wrath
Showing the lines of a silver path
To watchers in the night.
Ave Maria! From the sea
The constant litanies arise;
The burden of its many sighs
Goes up to thee.
Our lives make murmur and are vain
As ripples bringing tiny shells,
That the great sea behind impels,
And all its waves complain.