Miss Isabel Stone.
Miss Stone, long a resident of Morristown, has published many poems in prominent journals and magazines, also stories, but always under an assumed name. She will take a place in another group, that of Novelists and Story-Writers. She is represented here by her poem on "Easter Thoughts".
EASTER THOUGHTS.
Sometimes within our hearts, the good lies dead,
Slain by untoward circumstances, or by our own free will,
And through the world we walk with bowèd head;
Or with our senses blinded to our choice,
Thinking that "good is evil—evil good;"
Or, with determined pride to still the voice
That whispers of a "Resurrection morn."
This is that morn—the resurrection hour
Of all the good that has within us died,
The hour to throw aside with passionate force
The cruel bonds of wrong and blindness—pride—
And rise unto a level high of power,
Of strength—of purity—while those we love rejoice
With "clouds of angel witnesses" above,
And all the dear ones, who before have gone.
And we ascend, in the triumphant joy
And peace, and rapture of a changèd self
That now transfigured stands—no more the toy
Of circumstance—or pride, or sin, to blight—
Until we reach sublimest heights—
And stand erect, eyes fixed upon the Right—
Strong in the strength that wills all wrong to still,
Will—pointing upwards to th' ascended Lord,
Bless, aye, thrice bless, this fair, sweet Easter Dawn.