SUMMER MORNING'S WALK
| 'Tis scarcely four
by the village clock, The dew is heavy, the air is cool— A mist goes up from the glassy pool, Through the dim field ranges a phantom flock: No sound is heard but the magpie's mock. Very low is the sun in the sky, It needeth no eagle now to regard him. Is there not one lark left to reward him With the shivering joy of his long, sweet cry, For sad he seemeth, I know not why. Through the ivied ruins of yonder elm There glides and gazes a sadder face; Spectre Queen of a vanished race— 'Tis the full moon shrunk to a fleeting film, And she lingers for love of her ancient realm. These are but selfish fancies, I know, Framed to solace a secret grief— Look again—scorning such false relief— Dwarf not Nature to match thy woe— Look again! whence do these fancies flow? What is the moon but a lamp of fire That God shall relume in His season? the Sun, Like a giant, rejoices his race to run With flaming feet that never tire On the azure path of the starry choir. The lark has sung ere I left my bed: And hark! far aloft from those ladders of light Many songs, not one only, the morn delight. Then, sad heart, dream not that Nature is dead, But seek from her strength and comfort instead. |
SNOW-STAINS
| The snow had
fallen and fallen from heaven, Unnoticed in the night, As o'er the sleeping sons of God Floated the manna white; And still, though small flowers crystalline Blanched all the earth beneath, Angels with busy hands above Renewed the airy wreath; When, white amid the falling flakes, And fairer far than they, Beside her wintry casement hoar A dying woman lay. "More pure than yonder virgin snow From God comes gently down, I left my happy country home," She sighed, "to seek the town, More foul than yonder drift shall turn, Before the sun is high, Downtrodden and defiled of men, More foul," she wept, "am I." "Yet, as in midday might confessed, Thy good sun's face of fire Draws the chaste spirit of the snow To meet him from the mire, Lord, from this leprous life in death Lift me, Thy Magdalene, That rapt into Redeeming Light I may once more be clean." |