SIDNEY LANIER.
(From Ashes and Incense.[51])
O Spirit to a kingly holding born!
As beautiful as any southern morn
That wakes to woo the willing hills,
Thy life was hedged about by ills
As pitiless as any northern night;
Yet thou didst make it as thy “Sunrise” bright.
The seas were not too deep for thee; thine eye
Was comrade with the farthest star on high.
The marsh burst into bloom for thee,—
And still abloom shall ever be!
Its sluggish tide shall henceforth bear alway
A charm it did not hold until thy day.
And Life walks out upon the slipping sands
With more of flowers in her trembling hands
Since thou didst suffer and didst sing!
And so to thy dear grave I bring
One little rose, in poor exchange for all
The flowers that from thy rich hand did fall.
FOOTNOTE:
[51] By permission of the author, and publishers, J. B. Lippincott Co., Phila.