APRIL IN FOURTH AVENUE

The shadowing walls of stone-and-granite gloom
Are damp as with the vapors of a tomb;
They press me in, my very life to crush
And trample under men's convulsive rush.
While out beyond, the laughing gardens bloom
With flowers woven on the magic loom
Of velvet lawns, where leafy lilacs brush
The flirting wings of every dallying thrush.
And there, O God, not here between these walls,
May earth receive me when Thy Spirit calls
My soul to dwell in Spring's eternal Room
Far out beyond, where laughing gardens bloom
With flowers woven on the widening loom
Of endless time that spins no death nor doom.


PART II
SONGS FOR THE EVENING HOUR