I dare not limit time or place
Touched by thy life: nor dare I trace
Its far vibrations into space.
One only knows. Yet if the fret
Of thy weak heart, in weak regret
Needs a more tender comfort yet:
Then thou mayst take thy loneliest fears,
The bitterest drops of all thy tears,
The dreariest hours of all thy years;
And through thy anguish there outspread,
May ask that God’s great love would shed
Blessings on one belovèd head.
And thus thy soul shall learn to draw
Sweetness from out that loving law
That sees no failure and no flaw,
Where all is good. And life is good,
Were the one lesson understood
Of its most sacred brotherhood.
VERSE: A CHANGELING
A little changeling spirit
Crept to my arms one day:
I had no heart or courage
To drive the child away.
So all day long I soothed her,
And hushed her on my breast;
And all night long her wailing
Would never let me rest.
I dug a grave to hold her,
A grave both dark and deep;
I covered her with violets,
And laid her there to sleep.